Dead Men Tell No Tales
by Bards of Bedlam
Summary: A serial killer has been picking off 27th precinct cops one by one, and the situation culminates in the death of one of the precinct’s best cops…. Not sure how angsty it’ll be, but I’m putting it under angst just in case. SLASH.
1. A New Case

Okay, so I'm attempting my first multi-chapter _Fake_ fanfic since that…._disaster_ known as "Something Like Forever". I'm gonna do my best to make this one better than that one. So….let's hope it goes well!

**Disclaimer:**** I don't own **_**Fake**_** or any of its characters. If I did….they would probably be abused and angst-ified a lot more often than they are.**

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**Chapter 1—A New Case **

"Do you see him?"

"No. You?"

"Not down here. Where are you?"

"On top of the abandoned building about ten feet to your left."

Dee grinned. "What would I do without you, Ryo?"

There was a smile in Ryo's voice as he replied, "Crash, burn, whither and die a bitter, lonely death."

Dee laughed. "Okay, so what now?"

"I'll hang up here a bit, see if he doesn't turn up. You can go back to the precinct if you want."

"Nah, I'll hang. Two guns are better than one. How did you get up there?"

"There's a ladder around the side, in the alley. Leads straight up to the roof."

"Okay. See you in a minute."

"Right."

There was a crackling sound as Dee turned off his walkie and headed around the side of the building. After a few minutes, he found an iron ladder attached to the side of the building and had started to climb when Ryo looked down from the roof. His eyes widened and he yelled, "Dee, look out!" A second later, someone yanked sharply at Dee's ankle, and he found himself falling.

Luckily, he had only been about six feet up, but slamming against rock-hard pavement never feels good, no matter what height you're falling from. The poor detective lay there for a moment, dazed, fighting for breath, before someone landed on top of him, apparently jumping down from the ladder. Dee couldn't see his attacker's face, but he was willing to bet all his money plus his Knicks season tickets that it was the man they'd been chasing all night. He had been following them the whole time.

_Damn, he's good._ That was the only thought Dee could formulate before a swift blow to his jaw had him seeing stars. Then blows were raining down on him, and Dee could swear he felt a few knife slashes thrown in with the punches. He couldn't even begin to think, much less defend himself. Where the hell was Ryo?

Then, suddenly, a gunshot split the night as a scream erupted from the unknown assailant, and he clutched his shoulder as blood exploded from it.

Oh. There he was.

The gunshot wound distracted the man long enough that Dee could flip him over and pin him, wincing in pain as he did so. Ryo was beside him a moment later.

"What took you so long?"

"I shot him about thirty seconds after he jumped on you, Dee."

"Well, it felt like longer."

"You okay?"

Dee gritted his teeth in pain, trying to figure out how to keep a hold on their suspect and breathe at the same time. He shook his head shortly, gasping for breath.

Ryo looked at his lover in concern. "Dee, I've got him," he said quietly. "Here, let go…."

Dee did so gladly, lowering himself to the ground and leaning back against the building in exhaustion, dropping his gun to the ground. Ryo looked over at him again, his brow furrowed, before calling for an ambulance and the 27th precinct. Then he went back to concentrating fully on keeping their suspect pinned.

"David Marks, I presume?"

No answer, which was enough of an answer for Ryo.

"We've been looking for you."

XXX

Ryo sat nervously in the hospital waiting room as he waited for the doctor. He had been waiting for what felt like forever, and still no one had come to tell him about Dee. So he had fallen to staring at the wall with a pensive, worried look on his face.

"Randy McLean?"

Ryo jumped and turned to see a smiling nurse watching him. "Yes?"

"Are you here for Dee Laytner?"

"Yes," Ryo replied, standing quickly. "Is he okay?"

"He will be. You can see him now. Follow me."

A relieved sigh escaped Ryo as he stood to follow the nurse. She led him to Dee's room, where Dee was lying on the bed with his eyes closed. His shirt had been removed, his ribs were bound tightly, and his chest was covered with bruises and bandages. There was a brace on his right wrist and a few other bandages covering the knife wounds on his arms, and a spectacular bruise was beginning to form over his eye, along with another that began on his chin and spanned down the left side of his neck. It seemed the suspect had beaten him with a bat or some other blunt object before resorting to plain old fists and a knife.

"The doctor will be in in a moment," the nurse informed Ryo, before leaving the room and closing the door behind her.

Ryo went immediately over to the bed, pulling up a chair and sitting down. Reaching out to take Dee's hand, he said softly, "Dee?"

Dee's hand tightened on Ryo's, and he opened his eyes slowly, wincing in pain. "Hey."

"Hey," Ryo replied, smiling, the relief evident in his voice. "You okay?"

"….Ow."

Ryo laughed. "Yeah, doesn't look like it feels too good."

"I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For not being able to get him myself. You never should have had to shoot. I should have been able to get him without your help."

"Hey, it's both our faults. Neither of us saw him until he'd already gotten you. He was good at hiding. It's not your fault."

"….Yeah….right…."

Ryo smiled and leaned over to kiss Dee's forehead. "My Dee…."

"Yours…." Dee liked the way that sounded. He could never hear it enough, it seemed.

Ryo's smile widened. "Always. Now what did the doctor say?"

"Don't know. Fell asleep."

"Well, go back to sleep. I'll be right here."

Dee had just drifted back to sleep when the door opened. Ryo looked up, and smiled. "Dr. English. Hello."

"Hey, McLean. Heard our boy Laytner was back in here, so I figured it wouldn't be long before I saw you, too."

Ryo opened his mouth to reply, but Dr. English cut him off.

"Yeah, yeah, I know the look. The 'talk before I beat the life out of you' look. And since I like my life and my limbs and my head, here it is. Dee'll be fine. He's got a broken rib and a few bruised ones, and some of the cuts he got from the knife needed stitches. He sprained his wrist, too. He said he fell from a ladder?"

"Yes."

"And then he got the crap beaten out of him?"

"That's right."

Dr. English shook his head. "Man, your jobs suck…."

Ryo laughed. "No one knows that better than we do, Dr. English."

"All right, well, he can go home tonight. We wanna keep him here for a little while to make sure everything checks out, but you guys should be able to get out of here in a couple of hours."

"Okay. Thanks, Dr. English."

"No problem, man. Oh, and Ryo?"

"Yeah?"

"See if you can keep him out of my hospital after this? At least for a month?"

Ryo smiled. "I'll try."

"Good. Because the nurses hate him."

"I'm sure that's not true."

"Well, believe what you want, but there was talk of tar and feathers the last time he was here."

XXX

"God, I hate this job…." Dee said, groaning as he lowered himself onto his and Ryo's bed, having just changed into a pair of sweatpants to sleep in. "Consider this my resignation, I quit."

Ryo laughed as he finished changing into his pajamas. "Well, I called in sick for you, so you've got tomorrow off, and as much time as you need."

"Nah, I'll go. Can't leave you alone with all that paperwork, can I?"

"You never cared before," Ryo replied, climbing into bed next to Dee and pulling the covers over both of them. He curled up as close to Dee as he could without hurting him and buried his face in Dee's neck. "Does that hurt?"

Dee smiled and planted a kiss on top of Ryo's head, his good arm snaking around his lover and pulling him close. "No….it's not bad at all."

XXX

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Dee snapped. "We just wrapped something up last night! We've been working double shifts for the past three weeks! We're _tired_, man!"

Rose blinked at Dee, who was leaning heavily against his desk and looking—if possible—worse than he had the night before. "Too bad, Laytner. You've got a case. I suggest you start it now." Then Rose turned to Ryo and his smirk changed to a gentle smile. "Good morning, Ryo. How are you?"

Ryo looked up from the computer screen, his lips twitching as he tried not to smile. "Fine, sir. Dee's the one who got the crap beaten out of him."

Rose's smile turned cold. "Yes, well…. Perhaps if he had been watching his own back instead of thinking of all the things he could do to you up on that roof with no one watching." Dee blinked at him, clearly wondering how Rose knew that Ryo had been watching his partner from the roof. Rose's smirk grew. "Eyes and ears everywhere, Detective."

"Bite me," Dee said coolly.

"Bite me, _sir._ Featured word, _sir_."

Dee smiled, and to Rose's surprise, he didn't look angry at all. "You know, _sir_, one day Ryo's gonna come to his senses and file sexual harassment charges against you, and the second you get fired, you can bet I'll kick your ass. Featured word, _ass_." The smile widened, but it didn't reach his eyes, which were ice-cold, with a hint of malice hidden deep in their green depths. He was in a very bad mood today, Dee was. "Now, you said you had a case for us?"

"I do."

"Then give me the file and get the hell out."

"I really hate that guy," Ryo stated after Rose had dropped the file onto Dee's desk and left. His voice was calm, as was his face, but his eyes were stormy and had darkened, as they did when Ryo was angry.

"Then why don't you stop making nice and show him what you're really made of?" Dee asked absently as he flipped through the file.

"So what have we got?" Ryo asked, ignoring Dee's comment as he turned his chair away from the computer.

"A note. Apparently Rose couldn't stand to be in the same room with me long enough to brief us in person, so he wrote it all down—in _really_ crappy shorthand, inconveniently enough. And he's able to tell us….pretty much nothing. The FBI has been getting anonymous phone calls, every one threatening a different cop from this precinct. They traced the calls and each one came from a different cell phone. Every cell phone was registered to a different person. Every time they got a call, the phone it came from belonged to a recent murder victim. Then the FBI passed the case to Rose because he has more experience with the 27th. I guess Rose wasn't man enough to handle it, so he threw the case our way."

"Nice, Dee, real nice. Do we have anything to go on? Motive, maybe? A reason for wanting to kill us all?"

"Nope. Just a name. Russell Jarvis."

"And? Who is he?"

"They don't know. It could be the guy we're looking for, it could be an accomplice. Hell, it could be his butler, for all we know."

"How'd they get it?"

"Heard someone yell it in the background during one of the phone calls."

"Great. So that narrows the suspects down to every Russell Jarvis in the entire world. Pretty common name."

"Right. So where do we start?"

Ryo thought for a moment. "Okay, I'm gonna get on the computer to see if I can't find a Russell Jarvis in the criminal records."

"And? What do you want me to do?"

Ryo looked over at Dee with a smile as he turned back to the computer once again. "Keep me sane."

Dee grinned, and would have gotten up if not for the intense pain in his ribs. So he settled for rolling his chair over to sit next to Ryo and began to play with his lover's hair. "I think I can do that."

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That chapter was shorter than I'd planned and had almost no point, but I wanted to get something posted tonight.

There's one thing I think should be noted before this story goes any further. This is the first time I've written about a real case, and I have no idea how to write this sort of thing. The only knowledge of police work I have comes from repeated readings of the _Fake_ manga, extensive watching of _Angel_ seasons one and two, and one midnight viewing of _The Division_. So if I get everything wrong, please forgive me.


	2. The Unexpected

Okay, after a very long wait, here I am with the second chapter! Yay me! I edited the chapter, but most people who already read it won't notice much of a change. I just fixed some errors and such to make it a more enjoyable read.

And I have a feeling someone's gonna eventually review telling me that Rose is out of character in this story. Yes, I purposely painted Rose as a dirty rotten bastard, and I don't care if that proves me biased against him, I _hate_ the creep! I know you're supposed to be impartial and keep people in character when writing a fanfic, but I just can't seem to care when it comes to Rose. Jerk….

Er….eh heh. Sorry. I'm done now. Go on and read.

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**Chapter 2—The Unexpected**

By the time night fell and they were officially allowed to leave, they were both on the road to insanity.

Ryo dropped his head onto the keyboard, causing several boxes to pop up on the screen and a loud beeping sound to issue from the computer. "I'm going to go insane, Dee…."

Dee frowned and looked up, pausing momentarily from flipping through the papers that were scattered over the desk. "Nothing?"

"Less than. According to the records, _nothing_ is connected to this Russell guy. No murders, robberies, arson…. The guy's never even gotten a speeding ticket."

"So, what, you think….I dunno, maybe he's not connected to any of this at all?"

"I don't know. But he's the only lead we have, and he's a pathetic one." Ryo still hadn't lifted his head from the computer keyboard, and now he lifted it slightly and slammed it back down again. "Why us?" he moaned. "Does Rose have something against us? I mean, we've never done anything truly horrible to him, have we?" He paused. "….Okay, yeah, I see it now. I have seen the light. I quit. I'm finished. Goodbye, cruel precinct. Goodbye, cruel world!"

Dee laughed and stood slowly, wincing as he did so. "Ow…. C'mon, let's get out of here. You'll feel better about things tomorrow."

"Nope, I'll be dead tomorrow," Ryo replied matter-of-factly as he stood up and put on his jacket. "I plan on flinging myself off the roof tonight, right after I make you and Bikky dinner so at least I don't leave you starving when I throw myself to my death."

"As long as you have a plan," Dee replied in a teasingly soothing tone as he opened the door and stepped aside to let Ryo through.

Ryo turned to smile at him as he walked backwards through the doorway, and as a result of his lack of eyes in the back of his head, he backed right into Berkeley Rose. And judging by the way he jumped a foot in the air, Dee guessed that the commissioner's hands had wandered to a place they probably weren't supposed to be. Ryo, naturally, turned bright red. "H-hello, sir," he stammered.

Dee scowled as Rose smirked. "What the hell do you want?" he asked, leaning heavily against Ryo's desk, since it seemed they'd be there for a while.

"Careful with your tone, Detective," Rose replied smoothly, smiling coldly. "I just came to tell you that Adams and Parker will be working on this one with you."

"What? JJ? Why?" Dee asked, horrified.

"Yes, we're perfectly capable of handing it on our own, sir," Ryo added.

Rose smirked again. "No, _you're_ perfectly capable of handling it on _your_ own, Ryo. Laytner most likely won't pull his weight and, since this is such an important case and since it involves the possible death of some of our best officers, I just need to make sure you get the kind of help you need and deserve."

"So what you're saying is, I'm a lazy ass and Ryo's Sandra Dee," Dee said.

"….Pretty much."

Dee sighed, exasperated, before fixing a smile in place. "And to that, _sir_, I give you a heartfelt, if slightly hostile, 'kiss my ass.'"

Ryo bit back on the grin that was threatening to surface and said, "Goodnight, Commissioner," in a voice that was slightly choked from trying not to laugh.

"Good night, Detectives," Rose said with a forced smile, unable to hide his annoyance at Dee's newfound patience.

"It won't be so bad," Ryo said as he and Dee headed out of the building. "JJ's got Drake now."

"That doesn't stop him from tackling me every time he sees me," Dee replied gloomily.

"Oh, that's just JJ," Ryo replied dismissively.

"Unfortunately. I don't think I can take it right now if he pulls any of his crap….it'd be freaking painful…."

Ryo laughed and moved closer so that he could slip his hand through Dee's good one. The other was encased in an Ace bandage to keep his wrist still. "So since when do you actually have patience with Rose?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it's just….I've noticed lately that you've stopped being openly hostile when it comes to him, and….it freaks me out, to be honest."

It was Dee's turn to laugh now. "You wanna beat your enemy, hit him where it hurts the most. Rose likes making me mad, so I've decided to stop getting mad. It's kinda fun, actually. Baiting him."

"Yeah, everyone else seems to think so, too. What, is baiting the boss, like, the third most popular sport among cops these days?"

"Fourth, right after luge," Dee replied seriously as he got into their car.

"Well, don't let me stop you. It's fun to watch," Ryo stated, smiling as he got in behind the wheel. "Though it'll probably get you fired, leaving you unemployed and therefore completely dependent on me….and Bikky when he gets a job."

"Bite me."

"Is that an open invitation?" Ryo asked mischievously.

Dee grinned as he started the car and then placed his undamaged hand on the wheel. "You get more like me every day," he stated proudly.

XXX

"Why, _why_, would you drag me into work at this ungodly hour?" Dee moaned, his voice muffled due to the fact that his head was resting on the desk. Under normal circumstances, it would be on his arms, but they were still heavily bandaged. The painkillers he was taking had killed most of the pain, but he wasn't exactly overly eager to bring it back.

Ryo laughed. "It's not that early."

"Sun ain't even warm yet and here we are, already buried in papers. I hate you."

JJ chose that very inopportune moment to throw the office door open and sing, "Good moooooooorning!" at the top of his lungs.

Dee groaned. "Throw something sharp at him."

Ryo laughed again. "Morning, JJ. Where's Drake?"

"Oh, he's—"

"Morning, all," Drake greeted them, appearing behind JJ in the doorway. "I come bearing coffee."

Dee perked up immediately. "Ryo, would you be terribly upset if I left you for Drake?"

"If you can get him away from JJ, I say go for it," Ryo replied as he turned the computer on.

"Ah ah ah, stud," JJ said cheerfully, passing Dee a take-out cup of coffee and a muffin as he wrapped one arm around Drake's waist. "Hands off. I found him first, this one's mine."

A faint tint of red touched Drake's cheeks; he still hadn't gotten used to people knowing that he was bisexual, so the fact that one man was defending him against another was a little hard to grasp.

"Like I want him," Dee said, taking a sip of coffee. "Oh my God, this is good. Where did you find this stuff? They don't make it like this in the precinct."

"New diner just opened up about a minute and a half away from here," Drake explained, slipping out of JJ's one-armed embrace and taking a cup of coffee. "Not a lot of diners around here and I'm not really a diner guy, but this place is good. JJ, did you get my jelly doughnut?"

"Yeah, right here," JJ replied, handing the doughnut to Drake.

Dee, meanwhile, had already polished off his muffin and was looking around eagerly.

"There aren't anymore," Drake informed him, as though reading his mind.

"Okay, that muffin wasn't nearly enough," Dee replied, standing up. "We don't officially have to be in here for awhile yet. I say we go to this diner for breakfast….I'm starved. Ryo wouldn't let me eat this morning."

"It's not _my_ fault you wouldn't get up," Ryo told him. "And we have work to do, Dee. As foreign as that idea might be to you."

"Aw, where's the love, Ryo?"

"I left it with Leslie from Juvenile Crimes," the blond replied absentmindedly as he flipped through a case file.

"Nice. Come on, Ryo….just an hour for breakfast and I promise to work myself halfway to writer's cramp when we get back."

"Well, that's more than you usually do."

"Now you sound like Rose."

"That's nice, Dee. Get to work. _All_ of you."

"Do you…._ever_ have any fun?" Dee asked.

"I'm choosing not to answer that," Ryo said, smiling slightly as he gathered some papers from the desk. "I'm gonna go run and make some copies of these. In the meantime, Dee, you can fill them in on the absolutely _nothing_ we have so far while you guys try to get all this into something resembling order."

The other three just blinked at him, and Ryo paused in the doorway and turned back to them.

"_Now_!"

JJ and Drake, who had been listening to the argument with interest as they ate their doughnuts, immediately jumped to attention, and they began to gather papers and attempt to categorize them.

Dee shook his head slightly as he began to help, albeit more slowly than his fellow officers. Ryo always managed to do that to people. He always got them to work even when they were at their laziest. Ryo said jump, people asked how high. He would undoubtedly be taking the place of the Chief eventually, which didn't exactly improve Dee's outlook on his job. Just because he and Ryo were truly, madly, deeply in love didn't mean Ryo was likely to let Dee slack off. In fact, if he ever had to answer to Chief MacLean, his job would probably become even harder than it already was.

Cheery thought.

XXX

"Aha!"

Dee and Drake jerked out of their positions with their heads on their desks, Dee yelping at the sharp movement, and JJ swiveled in his chair to look over at Ryo.

"I wasn't asleep…." Dee muttered stupidly, trying to turn in the chair without actually turning the chair itself away from the desk, and then wincing as the jerking motion sent sharp pains shooting through his body. Looked like his painkillers were wearing off.

Ryo ignored him. "I've been checking into other New York precinct files, and I found a record for a guy named Robert Jarvis. He has a brother named Russell. Might give us something to go on."

"What was he arrested for?"

"Just petty stuff, mostly. Robbery, grand theft auto, disturbance of the peace…. He's got a clean record for the past ten years, though. Hey….that's interesting…."

"What?"

"I found this newspaper article from an old court case. This Robert apparently got in trouble for some pretty major crimes. The press never got any information on the bigger ones, but it says here that his lawyer got him off with promises that he would help the police on any cases involving people he knew—apparently he had some shady connections of some sort. Basically he got off on good faith, if the press is to be believed on this one."

"You got an address?"

"Right here." Ryo was already scribbling something down on a piece of paper as he spoke. "Dee, you and I can go over to his place tomorrow and see if we can get something out of him about a brother."

"Great, can we go home now?" Drake asked pleadingly.

Ryo laughed. "Yes, we can go home now."

"Good. I thought you were gonna keep us in here till our next shift…." JJ said.

"Oh, come on, it isn't _that_ late—" Then Ryo got a glimpse of the clock, and grinned sheepishly. "Oops."

XXX

"I'll bring the car around," JJ told Drake outside the precinct. The silver-haired officer was much calmer than usual, probably due to the fact that he could hardly keep his eyes open. Once he had left, the other three stayed behind and started to discuss the fine points of the case.

None of them suspected that anything could happen _now_.

Once he was in the car, JJ leaned forward to rest his forehead on the wheel for a moment. He really was very tired….

It was then that his mind registered a quiet beeping sound, coming from somewhere in the car. Blinking, he slowly lifted his head and focused. It seemed to be coming from the glove compartment….

If his brain had been in full working mode at the moment, he would have known instantly what the sound was. However, it wasn't until he opened the glove compartment that he became fully awake. His hand fumbled for the door handle, and he flung it open, throwing himself out of the car just as the vehicle and a large amount of the area around it were engulfed in flames….

XXX

Drake was moving before his mind had fully registered what had happened. He didn't even realize that Dee and Ryo were two steps behind him; his entire world had shrunk to the fire, the twisted blob of metal that had been the car, and the prone figure that was lying dangerously close to the inferno.

"JJ?" Drake squeaked, hesitating to touch the man who was flung at strange angles on the ground. Blood poured alarmingly from a gash/dent in JJ's head, but Drake couldn't bring himself to assess the rest of the damage as he at last threw aside all practicality and drew the man—his _lover_—into his arms. "Get an ambulance," he said tersely. Dee was kneeling beside him, holding one of JJ's hands so tightly that his knuckles were white, so Drake turned helplessly to Ryo. His voice rose to a terrified, anguished yell. "Get an ambulance _now_!"


	3. The Call

Some Drake OOC-ness in this chapter, but I didn't really know how he would handle this situation, since he really wasn't in the books enough for his character to really develop….so if I butchered him, I'm sorry.

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**Chapter 3—The Call**

Drake watched the sunrise from a hospital window that morning, sitting by JJ's hospital bed and clutching his lover's hand. Dee and Ryo had been forced out before they had been given any news, and Drake hadn't yet managed to force himself away from JJ long enough to call them. This problem was rectified, however, as Dee and Ryo came bursting into the hospital room the second visiting hours started. Neither of them looked as though they'd slept, but both of them looked better than Drake.

"Why haven't you called?" Dee demanded immediately. He had meant to say something encouraging, but the words got lost on the way to his mouth.

Drake just looked up at them with depressed, exhausted eyes, then turned back to JJ. It was that look that caught their attention. He just looked so….defeated.

"….What is it?" Ryo asked softly, unconsciously clutching Dee's arm in a death grip. "Is….he gonna be okay?"

"I, uh….I don't know. He's, uh….well, it doesn't look like he's gonna be coming out of this for awhile."

"What do you mean?"

"He's got some bruises, some cuts….internal injuries….pretty serious burns, obviously. Surgery went well but….well, doctor said it was head trauma. He's….in a coma now. Doctor says he's lucky to be alive." Up until that point, Drake had rattled it all off calmly, no emotion in his voice, like lines he'd memorized for some class. Now, however, he let out a short, bitter laugh, and rubbed the back of his free hand across his eyes, his hold on JJ tightening slightly for a moment. "I could have killed him when he said that."

His eyes hadn't moved from JJ's face, but now he dropped his head onto the hard hospital mattress, blinking back the tears that he couldn't quite explain. NYPD cops didn't cry, right? He'd held it in all night as he sat by JJ's bedside, refusing to be removed no matter how many people insisted that he leave. Why should he break down now? Then he made the mistake of looking back up at JJ's face. The normally energetic man just looked so….peaceful. So perfect. Staring at that face, Drake's resolve crumbled, and he dropped his head back against his lover's hand as his shoulders started to shake.

Dee dropped into the nearest chair, a mixture of exhaustion, pain, and mind-numbing worry for his academy buddy driving the strength out of him. He was at a complete loss. He never knew what to do in these situations unless he was comforting his own lover.

Ryo, however, impatiently brushed back the tears that threatened his own eyes and stepped silently forward, placing his hands gently on Drake's shoulders. He didn't bother with the empty promises that everything would be all right, because he knew better than most people how completely pointless it was. He simply stood there, doing his best to keep some sort of connection with his fellow officer, whose world was being slowly and deliberately stripped away from him.

Drake Parker would have nothing left to live for if he lost his lover. Now that he finally knew the difference between true love and the testosterone-induced need for sex, he didn't know what he would do if he lost the one person who had never left him.

A moment later, Ryo felt a hand slip into his own, lift it off Drake's shoulder, and kiss it softly. Smiling, slightly, he gently squeezed Drake's shoulder with his other hand and leaned against Dee, forgetting temporarily about his lover's injuries and doing his best to offer what comfort he could.

Dee ignored the pain that flared in his ribs when Ryo's weight rested against him, and kissed the side of his lover's head in an effort to reassure both of them.

It was a long while before Drake finally managed to pull himself together, and he forced a sheepish smile at his friends, which quickly dissolved as he turned back to focus on his comatose lover.

No one really knew what to say now, so they all sat in silence and focused on the sleeping man on the bed. Every once in awhile, Ryo would reach out to brush a hand through JJ's hair or squeeze Drake's shoulder gently, his hand lingering for a moment before he returned it to his lap. His other hand clutched Dee's tightly, and Dee sat there and battled the urge to break down. No matter what tough old Dee Laytner said to the contrary, he really did care deeply about his hyperactive, infuriating little shadow.

"We should….get to work," Ryo said quietly, after an hour had passed this way. "Are you gonna….?"

"No, I'll stay here," Drake replied, turning his eyes briefly to Ryo before returning his gaze to JJ. "I'll see you guys later."

XXX

Outside the hospital room, Ryo closed the door softly and leaned against the wall, feeling his strength give out. He felt one of Dee's arms come around him, and he leaned into the embrace. "I can't believe this is happening," he said quietly.

Dee didn't have any reply to that. He just stood there for a moment, holding Ryo in his arms, and then straightened and spoke in a voice that Ryo had rarely heard him use. "Come on, we have to get to the precinct." He looked his lover straight in the eye, and the half-Japanese man was a little frightened at what he saw in the straightforward, level, icy cold gaze. "I'm not playing games anymore, Ryo. I'm gonna get this guy."

XXX

"What the _hell_? You've gotta be kidding me!"

"I assure you I'm not," Rose replied calmly, folding his arms and leaning back in his chair to look up at the officers standing in front of his desk. "You're off the case, I'm handing it back over to the FBI."

"_Why_?" Dee demanded, looking dangerously close to exploding. Having taken another painkiller just before returning to the precinct, he was fully capable of lunging across the table at the Commissioner, although he would surely pay for it later.

Rose didn't reply to Dee's furious question, instead averting his eyes to the papers that littered his desk—in an organized sort of chaos, of course.

"….Is it because of what happened to JJ?"

Rose sighed, and leaned forward to rest his head on his hands for a moment, before straightening again and meeting their eyes. "If you must know, yes."

"Oh, that is just—"

"Laytner, what am I supposed to do? You're all way too involved with this whole mess. I don't know what they were thinking when they handed this case to us, but it was obviously a mistake."

"But—"

"Everyone here is too deep in the mess to be able to think clearly. They all love Adams. There's no one in this entire precinct who wouldn't put one thing or another on the line to save that…." He faltered for a moment. "And if it can happen to him, it can happen to anyone else."

"But you _knew_—"

"Yes, we did, but we thought nothing would happen anytime soon. The threats—and that's all we thought they were, _threats_—they all described something happening, but….not now. Things are happening a lot faster than we expected, and…." Rose sighed. "Look, I made a mistake, all right?"

Dee and Ryo blinked. They had never heard Rose admit something of that nature before.

"I was the one who decided the 27th should handle this one on its own, and look where it's gotten us. Someone wants us to stop investigating, I wouldn't do it and now Adams is halfway dead."

"Don't you _dare_—"

"He's hovering in the middle and don't pretend to have any delusions about the matter, Detective," Rose snapped, the professional, businesslike tone back in his voice. "You're off the case, and that's the end of it." Then, his glasses perched on his nose, the Commissioner leaned forward and began to go through his paperwork. "You're dismissed, Detectives."

"_Excuse_ me? You think you can just—"

"Dee."

Dee blinked and turned to look at the blond man standing next to him. Ryo hadn't said anything since they had entered Rose's office, preferring to remain silent rather than get in the way of his lover's frustration, but now he spoke quietly, laying his hand on Dee's arm. His expression was blank, his mask of indifference so perfectly arranged that only Dee would notice that he was fuming quietly.

"Why don't you go wait in the hall? I'll be out in a minute."

"But—"

"Go on."

Dee sighed in exasperation, but left the room, grumbling under his breath. In the hallway, he leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, cradling his wrist as he waited impatiently until Ryo came out.

"We're back on the case," Ryo said tiredly.

"What? What did you say to him?" Dee demanded, following the blond as he set off down the hall toward their office.

"Nothing you ever need to know. It might give you ideas." Then, with a sigh, Ryo said, "We'd better get over to this Jarvis guy's place….see if we can get anything out of him."

"You stay here and finish filing this damn paperwork. Meet me down there as soon as you're finished with it."

XXX

Robert Jarvis was a small, round, watery-eyed man in his early forties whose living habits disgusted even Dee. Dee, for his part, had gone into the apartment feeling very tense and half-hoping Jarvis would refuse to cooperate, thus giving Dee an excuse to use a little physical pressure. (Hence his request for Ryo to stay behind for a bit.) He wasn't disappointed.

Jarvis had sold out countless people before, but he had never had to do so to his own family. He wouldn't even admit he _had_ a brother until Dee had gotten a few decent hits in. (Somewhere in the part of his mind that wasn't consumed with anger over what had happened to JJ, Dee found it rather amusing that he really _could_ take this man with only one hand and minimal movement.) Even after that, he wouldn't reveal anything that his brother might have done and kept asking why the cops would even be after him in the first place. Dee was beginning to lose what little self-control he had left when Ryo let himself into the apartment.

"Dee, I've been knocking for ages, what've you—" He paused, taking in the scene before him and Robert Jarvis's disheveled features. "What're you doing?

When the blond entered, Jarvis froze. His face was swollen and there was a cut above his right eye, and the man looked quite shaken. Seemed the line between protocol and police brutality had once again become blurred.

"Dee…." Ryo sighed, looking slightly exasperated.

"He wasn't cooperating," Dee muttered, trying to look apologetic when really all he wanted to do was continue to hit things.

Ryo shook his head and turned his attention to Jarvis, then froze. The man was staring at him and shaking violently, his eyes wide. "Um….sir? Are you all right?"

"Mary, mother of God….it can't be…."

Dee shot his lover a quizzical look.

"_You_….no….it can't….you aren't….you're _him_…."

"What the hell are you muttering about?" Dee asked, confused.

"I…. Oh, God…." Still muttering under his breath, the man walked over to a desk in the corner of the room and began to shuffle through the papers that littered it until he came up with a small card. "Here…." He handed the card to Dee. "That's all I can give you….my brother used to run that bar….don't know if he still does….haven't had any contact with him since…." Then Jarvis cast another frightened look at Ryo. "I'm….going to have to ask you to leave….I've told you all I know, and unless you're going to charge me with something, I really can't…. Just go, all right?"

Jarvis watched the officers leave, waited for their footsteps to fade, and then quickly picked up the phone and dialed with shaking hands.

"Russell? I know….I'm sorry, man, I just….you know I couldn't get in touch with you. Right. The point. You're not going to believe this…. That guy….the half-Jap one….you told me you wasted him…. He's back, man. You….what? No, he was….he _looked_ alive….he's not? You _knew_ he was here? Why didn't you call me? Well what are you doing about it? You're _what_? Man, I know you're freaked out to see him but is that any reason to off an entire precinct? Okay….uh-huh…. Yeah, man, whatever. Fine. Just don't get me involved. Later."

XXX

"Well….he was quite a character…." Ryo observed idly, after they had been shoved rudely out the door and into the apartment hallway.

"Yeah…." Dee agreed, as they began to walk down the stairs. "So what do we do next?"

"I guess we go over to this bar."

"Right."

"So I wonder what was with him…." Ryo wondered aloud as they headed out the doors and onto the street. "He looked sort of freaked when I came in…."

Dee shrugged. "Who knows?"

Despite their feigned indifference, though, both their detective senses were tingling.

XXX

That day was a long and frustrating one for both of them. They met dead ends everywhere they turned, it seemed, and had not even managed to find out if Russell Jarvis had done anything to warrant a stern warning, let alone an arrest.

"No one seems to know where he is…." Ryo muttered as they returned to their office at around midnight. "He's left us _nothing_ to follow."

"I know," Dee replied. "Suspicious, isn't it?"

XXX

They never would have gotten any leads at all if the calls hadn't started coming for Ryo.

The first one came a few days after they had begun the search for Russell Jarvis. There had been no change in JJ's condition and Drake rarely left the hospital. He went home to shower every night and immediately returned to his lover's hospital room, otherwise not leaving except to use the bathroom or to eat in the hospital cafeteria. Dee and Ryo stopped by every day after work, but devoted most of their time to their case. Even Dee threw himself into it, though he preferred to let Ryo handle the practical stuff while he took care of the action whenever possible. On several occasions, he was able to use force to get his information, provided he was able to keep that fact a secret from Ryo and the Commissioner. He had a feeling that Ryo already knew, but the blond was kind enough not to mention it. He, better than most, understood the pressure that Dee was under and the tension that was building up inside him. If Dee wanted to take out that stress on whatever scumbag came along to help them with their case, then that was his business and no one else's.

Dee was out of the office when the call came, having been forced by Ryo to get out and clear his head. The poor guy wasn't used to working so hard and not getting anywhere. Hell, he just wasn't used to working so hard, period. He had a new respect for Ryo now, realizing how hard it must be to constantly be the one staying behind trying to figure out the practical angles.

They had gathered several more facts from the FBI, and it seemed no one had given them the rest of the picture. According to Rose, he had had a hell of a time convincing them to even hand the case over to the 27th, and while the Commissioner packed a lot of influence, apparently he didn't have enough. He ended up having to throw a lot of his weight around and eventually had to call in several favors to get the information that had been carefully left out. Dee had spent a great deal of time complaining about that very fact. It seemed that though the FBI had handed the case to the 27th, they were still working on it on their own time and had, in fact, only pretended to give it up to get Rose off their backs. The Commissioner apparently had more sway than he was letting on….

Apparently, someone was following the movements of the FBI and the NYPD very closely, because said someone knew exactly who was working on this particular case and was picking them all off one by one, then carefully burying the evidence. The man had obviously done this before, and knew exactly what he was doing. Two of the FBI officers who had been working on the case had been killed, one in a bombing, the other by poison. Two others were in the hospital after similar occurrences, and now JJ had become a victim. The only thing all these officers had in common was that they were all trying to find the man who was threatening the 27th.

Ryo had the how, but he was still missing the who and the why. There had to be a _reason_ this person was targeting the 27th precinct, right? But what could it possibly be? What could possibly motivate a person to kill an entire team of police officers?

After thoroughly reading and re-reading everything he had been given, Ryo had set about putting together a profile for their man, carefully figuring out how the person's brain worked and making an excellent educated guess at his mental state and what had led him to where he was. It had not been fun getting in the man's mind. It had taken him two days, twenty-two cups of substandard precinct coffee, and enough disturbing mental images to last him a lifetime, but he was finally finishing up when the phone rang. Sighing, not taking his eyes off the page he was re-reading, he reached over and picked it up. "Randy MacLean."

Silence.

"Hello?"

"I've been watching you."

"….Um….Excuse me?"

"Why have you come back?"

"….Sir, if you have an emergency…."

"I think you know who I am."

Ryo blinked.

"I think you know, but you don't want to admit it."

"….Why are you calling me?"

"My brother called me. You were in his apartment, weren't you? Why did appear to him and not to me?"

"I….uh…."

"What did you do to my brother, Mr. MacLean?"

"I….nothing, I…."

"Leave my brother out of this. I'm begging you. He did nothing to you, sir. Your fight is with me. I'm the one who killed you. He did nothing. Leave him out of it….please."

_Click_.

Ryo blinked again and stared down at the phone in his hand, then hung it up slowly and hit the print button on the computer.

Looked like things were going to get more interesting, after all.

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Less action, more random stuff in this chapter. It was mostly just a filler chapter to post while I tried to figure out where I'm going with this story. I'm going to actually have something happen in the next chapter, so please be patient with me. And in the meantime, review, please!


	4. Investigation

Sooooo sorry about the long wait for an update! Here I am!

All right, this story is about to take a turn that it wasn't originally supposed to. I had a whole different plan, but I was watching the _Law and Order_ marathon and one of the episodes gave me an idea that I like better. So this is sorta based on a _Law and Order_ episode, I guess, but not really….it's different…. Just go with it.

The whole story pretty much gets revealed in this chapter, and I hate that, but I didn't know how else to do it….I'll probably end up changing it later, I dunno.

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**Chapter 4—Investigation**

Dee called late that night—or rather, early the next morning—from their apartment.

"What are you still doing there?" The black-haired man's question was spoken in an unusually quiet voice, so Ryo assumed that Bikky was asleep. "I came home and fell asleep, and when I woke up you weren't there."

"Oh….sorry. I guess I got carried away…."

"I guess so."

"Sorry…."

"Don't worry about it. I just don't want you overworking yourself, is all."

Ryo smiled. "I'm not. I'm just trying to find us a new lead to follow."

"When will you be home?"

The smile grew. "Why, do you want me to wake you up?"

There was a grin in Dee's voice now. "Depends on what you'd be waking me up for."

Ryo laughed. "I'll be home soon, all right? Go back to bed, and I'll try to be quiet when I come in."

"Okay, I'll do that," Dee replied around a yawn. "Night, Ryo."

"Night. Love you."

"Love you, too."

XXX

Dee woke with a start when his alarm began to beep annoyingly. "Shit, that's obnoxious…." he muttered, his voice thick with sleep, as he slammed his hand against the snooze button, then yelped as his still-healing wrist smacked sharply into the timepiece. "Ryo?"

That was when he realized that the space next to him was empty.

XXX

When Dee entered their office half an hour later, it was to find Ryo in front of the computer, tapping away at the keys. "Morning," he said to Dee without looking up, his words laced with exhaustion.

The room was in unusual disarray (the blond usually wouldn't stand for an untidy workspace) with papers scattered over every available surface and empty coffee cups strewn in the empty spaces.

"….Ryo? What….happened here?"

"Huh?" Ryo glanced up. "Oh….sorry about this. It's just research. A bunch of dead ends I hit that turned out to be nothing. I'll get it all cleaned up, I promise."

"That's not what I'm worried about. Have you been here all night?"

"Um….yeah," the blond replied, turning back to the computer. "I've been trying to figure things out."

"Why didn't you call me? I could have helped."

"I know, but I didn't want to wake you up. You sounded tired on the phone."

"No more than you do now," Dee pointed out, his voice touched by concern. "Did you sleep at _all_?"

"Um….no, not really."

"Ryo…." Dee groaned.

"Okay, well, I'm sorry, but with JJ in the hospital I really don't have time to take a break right now, okay? I'll have time for sleep when I get this cracked. Now be a good guy and sit down so I can tell you what I figured out."

Dee sighed, but did as he was told, dropping into a free chair and picking up a sheet of paper to examine it with a bored look on his face. It was covered with little scribbles and notes in Ryo's small, neat handwriting, none of it making sense to him.

"Okay, now before I start, I want you to promise that you'll stay calm and won't freak out on me or anything."

"….Okay…." Dee agreed uneasily.

"I think I'm the one our guy's after."

"….What? Why would you say that?"

"Because I, uh….I got a call from him last night…."

"You _what_?"

Ryo sighed. "You promised not to freak out, remember?"

"Is that why you didn't come home last night?" Dee demanded, waving Ryo's comment aside.

"Yeah, that phone call sorta put things in perspective for me."

"What do you mean?"

The blond began to tap the computer keys again, continuing with his explanation as he did so. "When the guy called me….he wasn't making much sense. He asked me why I 'appeared' to his brother and not to him. Then he said that it was _him _that killed me—because apparently I'm dead in this story—so why did I have to drag his brother into it? A bunch of crap like that. And after I got the call, I realized that I've been going about this all wrong. So I pulled up everything I could find about murders of 27th officers in the last couple of decades, and I found….well, see for yourself."

Dee blinked, then stood and came over to the computer, leaning over Ryo's shoulder to get a proper look at the screen.

"….Whoa."

"Pretty much my same reaction."

On the screen was a picture of a smiling man in his mid-twenties. It was a black-and-white picture, but the man in it was clearly a light shade of blond. The eyes were light enough to be some sort of light blue, or maybe green, but the face and build were unmistakable.

"It's…._you_…."

"They say everyone has a twin somewhere in the world. Guess we found mine."

"So he was a 27th cop?"

"Yep. His name was Jason Stockwell. Murdered ten years ago almost to the day. The anniversary of his death is in a week and a half. It says in this article that he and his partner were trying to bring down a guy who was rumored to be a drug addict and experimenting with all sorts of dangerous stuff. The guy went crazy and killed Stockwell in front of his partner. Apparently those two were really close, because after the murder, Stockwell's partner quit his job and moved out of New York."

"Is he still alive?"

"Nope. He got a new job at the LAPD about two years ago and he got shot during a bank robbery six months later."

"Sucks to be him."

"You're so sensitive, Dee."

Dee chuckled. "So I'm guessing Jarvis killed this guy?"

"And you'd be right. Turned out he wasn't a drug addict, though. He was actually an undiagnosed, high-function schizophrenic. It never interfered much with his life in the beginning, but as he got older, his mental state started to deteriorate. By the time Stockwell and his partner found him, his mind was more than half-gone."

"Where is he now?"

"He got off on an insanity plea and was placed under the care of the friendly shrinks at Rockwell Psychiatric. He was released about three years ago and was pronounced sound of mind, which I guess he was."

A few more taps on the keys, and another page came up as the article Ryo had pulled up started to print.

"I also found a newspaper clipping. Turns out that Stockwell and his partner, William Monroe, were actually together, though no one found out about it until well after Stockwell's death. The whole thing made the papers in a big way, and then Monroe actually did an interview with a Los Angeles newspaper about five months after he joined the LAPD force. It seems that right after Jarvis was released from the psych ward, he tracked down Monroe and tried to make things right. The two actually got really close, which surprised Monroe as much as it surprised anyone else. Monroe actually told the reporter all this and it was printed a week before he was killed. Another article says that after the robbery, Jarvis went off his meds again, apparently because he was so broken up about Monroe's death. He was arrested for the assault and attempted murder of another cop, and sent back to the same mental hospital he'd been in before. He's still there, as far as I know."

"But how could he be killing off cops from a psych ward?" Dee wondered, confused. "They should be keeping pretty close tabs on him there."

Ryo shrugged. "Guess we'll find out."

XXX

By the time they got to Rockwell Psychiatric, Ryo was fighting to walk in a straight line and not to lean on Dee. The olive-skinned man tossed worried glances at his lover the whole time, but didn't dare suggest that the blond go home and rest.

"Have you called Drake today?" Dee asked conversationally, as they stood in the lobby and waited for the receptionist to finish her conversation with the man she seemed to be helping.

"Yeah. There's been no change. I don't think Drake's even left the hospital."

"I'm gonna go visit him after our shift. Wanna come along?"

Ryo nodded, and then the old woman behind the desk noticed them standing there and waved them over. "What can I do for you boys?" she asked cheerfully.

"Hello," Ryo greeted her as he pulled his wallet out to show his ID, sliding his trademark smile into place so easily that only Dee would notice how forced it was. "We're with the NYPD. Is there a Russell Jarvis here?"

Her smile grew. "Of course. Russell is one of our favorite patients."

Dee raised his eyebrows, but chose to remain silent for once in his life. Of course, the sharp elbow he received in the vicinity of his ribcage might have had some impact on that decision. He glared at Ryo, silently thanking the painkillers that kept him from yelping.

The receptionist's smile faltered slightly. "Is something wrong, officers?"

"No, of course not, we just need to talk to him," Ryo replied quickly. "Could you point us to his room?"

XXX

The room they were shown to was obviously a semi-permanent one, with flowers in vases placed around the room and colorful paintings on the walls. The bed was carefully made and had obviously not been touched that day, and there was a man sitting at the table by the window, pencil in hand as he sketched something in a notebook.

"Russell Jarvis?" Ryo inquired, walking slowly towards the man while Dee hung back by the door.

The man looked up, and smiled. "That's me."

"I'm Randy MacLean. The guy by the door is my partner, Dee Laytner. We're with the NYPD. Can we talk to you for a minute?"

Jarvis shrugged. "Sure. Take a seat."

Ryo sat down across from him, and smiled gently. "What are you drawing?"

"….A dream I had," Jarvis replied, a little sheepishly. "I have weird dreams, but if I draw them out, they usually stop afterwards."

"Oh, really?"

The man nodded.

"That's interesting. I should try it….might help get rid of my dreams about my job."

Jarvis chuckled. "You should. It really helps. Now, what can I do for you?"

"Actually, my partner and I are working on a case that we thought you might be able to help with."

He shrugged. "I'll….do my best, I guess."

Ryo glanced over at Dee, who nodded at him, and then the blond's gaze turned back to Jarvis. "Okay, I have to be straight with you, Russell. We have some evidence connecting you to our case, and….not in the wholesome, friendly, you-might-be-able-to-help-us way that we cops love. Now, I understand that you were arrested for murder a few years back?"

The small, friendly, willing-to-help smile that had been touching Jarvis's mouth up to that point vanished, and after a moment of holding Ryo's gaze, he turned back to his drawing. "I don't want to talk about that."

"Well, I'm sorry, but you sort of have to. We're depending on what you can tell us. You were arrested for murder, right? But you got off on an insanity plea?"

"That's right….I was diagnosed with schizophrenia…."

"And after you were released from your rehab, you went to find the partner of the man you killed?"

Jarvis nodded.

"He was killed, though, right? And you checked yourself back in here?"

The pencil began to move more quickly now as Jarvis nodded.

"….Might I ask why?"

Silence. The pencil stopped moving, and Jarvis's eyes slowly rose to meet Ryo's. "I was afraid of what I might do."

"What do you mean?"

"I think you know full well what I mean, officer."

Ryo smiled slightly. "Well, you seem to be very mentally stable now. Why don't you leave?"

Jarvis hesitated, then went back to his drawing, more calmly this time, as though he was simply trying to give his hands something to do. "I've killed before. Because the voices told me to. I don't want to do it again. Here….it's safer. If I stay here….they'll take care of me. They make me take the pills, and the voices are quiet. I like it this way. I like it here." His voice rang with innocence, truth, and a little fear.

Ryo sighed. "I understand. Okay, I just have one more question. When you've been around other people in this ward….have you seen any of them acting strangely? Saying strange things, maybe on a phone?"

Jarvis actually seemed to think about it, and for quite a long moment. Then he shook his head. "Not that I remember, but I'd be happy to contact you if I notice anything."

"Thank you, we'd appreciate that," Ryo replied, standing and handing Jarvis his card. "All right, that's all for now, I think. Call that number if you remember anything else, okay? Thanks for your time."

"It's nothing, officers. Anything I can do to help."

Ryo returned his smile and quickly left the room, pulling Dee along and shutting the door behind him.

Jarvis sat in his chair for a moment after they'd left, waiting for their footsteps to fade, and then pulled a cell phone out of his pocket. He pressed the 1, waited for a moment, then said, "They came. Yes….everything went exactly as I expected it to. I won't. I promise. Okay, I should call my brother and tell him to get out of town while he still can. No reason for him to get caught up in this. Yes. Yes, I understand. All right. I won't. Goodbye."

XXX

"I can't believe you didn't say a word that entire time."

Dee laughed. "You give me so little credit, Ryo…."

"Hold on a second," Ryo said, as they reached the front lobby. Dee blinked as his partner went over to the reception desk, but he did as he was told. "Ma'am?" he heard Ryo inquire politely.

The receptionist looked up, smile in place. "Yes, officer?"

"I just have a couple of questions for you. Could I have a moment?"

"Of course. What can I help you with?"

"Russell Jarvis, actually. What's up with him?"

"I'm afraid I don't know what you mean."

"Is he….you know….mentally stable? Because he seemed very much so when I was talking to him, but….if that were the case, wouldn't he have left here by now?"

The woman sighed. "You would think so, wouldn't you? But he keeps insisting that he has to stay here. So we do what we can to keep him comfortable here, and he pays well for the room. He doesn't make trouble, so we figure it's doing no harm. Why do you ask?"

"Just…wondered, is all. And….just one more thing. Do you have cameras in your rooms? And do you keep tabs on your patients' phone calls?"

"Yes to the first question, and usually, yes to the second. But since Russell has proven himself to be trustworthy, we don't keep as close a watch on him as we might have when he first came here."

"But you still have a camera in his room?"

"Of course."

Ryo smiled. "You, uh….might want to check and see that it's working properly. Thank you for your time." Then he left the confused receptionist and went back over to Dee, pulling him out of the lobby.

"What was that about?" Dee asked, once they were outside, back in the bustle of the city.

Ryo sighed. "He's our man."

"….How do you know?"

"I know. I can't explain how, but I know. I just….need some way to prove it. Some sort of concrete evidence." He sighed, and leaned against Dee as he fought to keep his wits about him.

Dee sighed, and put an arm around the blond, pulling him close and planting a kiss on the top of his head. "C'mon, let's get you home. We've done enough work for today, and you're not gonna do anyone any good until you've had some sleep."


	5. Time Of Death

I'm so sorry I haven't been updating! I'm updating even less than usual lately, and everything I _have_ written has been for my creative writing class. You all have every right to be annoyed with me! My deepest apologies to the lot of you!

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**Chapter 5—Time Of Death….**

By the time they got back to their apartment, Ryo was so exhausted he actually forgot for a moment where the bedroom was. Dee took off his jacket and tossed it onto a chair, only to watch Ryo pick it up with a sigh and hang it neatly over the back of the chair. His arms dropped heavily back to his sides, and he rubbed his eyes as he felt a headache building behind them. After removing his own jacket and shoes, he went into the kitchen, opened a cabinet, and began to rummage through it for something to cook. He stopped halfway through, however, his arm dropping back to his side as his other hand rubbed at his eyes. The bright kitchen light was causing his head to pound angrily, and his stomach rolled at the sight of all the food.

"Ryo, are you feeling okay?" Dee asked, concerned, as Ryo fell to staring off into space.

"Huh?" Ryo asked, coming sharply back to Earth.

"You don't look so good."

"I don't?"

Dee sighed and pressed a hand to Ryo's forehead. "Damn….you're burning up, Ryo…."

"Am I?" Ryo asked distantly. "Yes, I suppose I am…."

Another sigh emitted from Dee, and he pushed Ryo towards their bedroom. "All right, come on…." With another gentle push, he guided his lover through the door, muttering, "You work yourself to death….never sleep….go for days without a decent meal….what do you think is gonna happen, ya jackass?" His tone was affectionate, though, even if the fondness in his tone was carefully disguising the worry that Ryo surely would have picked up if he'd been more alert. Then he shoved Ryo lightly but firmly into the bathroom. "Take a shower," he ordered, handing the blond his favorite pajamas. "I'm gonna make you some soup."

Ryo blinked stupidly, then turned to do as he was told.

XXX

When Ryo got out of the shower half an hour later, exhaustion was pulling at every part of him. He looked longingly at the bed, but firmly pulled himself away from it and left the room, entering the kitchen just in time to hear Dee mutter a curse word and slam a pot down on the counter. Chuckling to himself, he slowly walked across the kitchen. "Dee? What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to make you some soup, like I said I was going to," Dee replied, setting a pot lid over the small fire on the stove.

"Yes, I can see that. But we have canned soup, you know."

"Mother says canned soup doesn't help you get better _or_ fill you up. She says homemade soup is the only way to go." The olive-skinned man carefully lifted the lid, then set it aside and put the pot back on the stove. "Besides, you've been working so hard lately. You deserve something."

Ryo smiled slightly as he came up behind Dee and put his arms around him, shivering slightly with cold. He avoided putting any pressure on Dee's healing ribs, simply resting against him instead of really holding him. "That's really sweet and everything Dee, but…." He looked down into the pot. "That's not food. That's not even….I'm not eating that."

Dee chuckled and turned off the stove. "But you have to eat _something_."

"Not hungry," Ryo replied, resting his forehead against Dee's back. "Tired…." He leaned in closer and smiled. Dee was so warm….

XXX

Later that night, Ryo and Dee lay together, the blond curled tightly against his lover's side and wrapped in blankets. His shivering had quieted considerably, although his skin was still hot and flushed with fever. Dee held him tightly, breathing in his scent, as his thoughts tumbled around in his head, growing steadily darker as the night did. Someone was after Ryo—_his_ Ryo—and he'd be damned if he wasn't more terrified at this moment than he'd been since Leo had died.

And not only was Ryo in danger, but JJ's life was hanging in the balance because of the same man. Dee didn't know if he could endure losing both of them. He _knew_ he couldn't endure losing Ryo. That was probably the one thing that would completely break him.

Beside him, Ryo mumbled quietly in his sleep and moved closer to Dee, who shifted carefully to take some of the weight off his injuries, before tightening his hold on Ryo again. "I love you, Ryo," he murmured quietly.

XXX

When Ryo woke up the next morning, the space next to him was empty. "….Dee?" he mumbled sleepily, before flopping over and burying his head in the pillow. "I think I'm gonna be sick…." he muttered to no one in particular.

A moment later, a door slammed shut, and Ryo heard the unmistakable sound of Bikky removing his skates and tossing them down next to the door. "Ryo!"

"Shh," he heard Dee say, just outside the door. "Keep it down, ape."

"Bite me, old man," the boy replied, although his voice was considerably quieter now.

"Shut up. Just get some food and go to school."

"Where's Ryo?"

"He's sick, so it's cereal this morning, and you'd better like it, monkey brat."

"Yeah, whatever," Bikky replied, before his voice faded as he went to the kitchen to rush through a bowl of frosted flakes.

"Hey, Ryo?" Dee asked softly, opening the door slowly.

"Hmm?" Ryo asked lazily, pulling the covers more tightly around him as Dee came over to sit next to him on the bed.

"Do you want some breakfast?" Dee asked, brushing a lock of hair out of Ryo's eyes.

Ryo smiled and leaned into the touch, although he turned slightly green and shook his head at the mention of food. "Nooooo…."

Dee chuckled quietly, leaning forward to brush a kiss against Ryo's forehead. "Okay. I called in for you, so you have the day off."

"You going in?"

"Yeah, for a few hours, at least. I wanna get this thing finished."

"Mmm….kay." Ryo curled up into an even smaller ball as Dee stood and wrapped more blankets around him.

"I'll see you tonight, love."

XXX

"Where's your partner, Laytner?"

Dee looked irritably up from the computer, which he had been indulged in a battle of wits with for the past half hour. "What the hell do you want?"

Rose smirked. "What the hell do you want, _sir_," he replied mildly, before heading across the room and picking up one of the sheets of paper on the desk next to Dee. "You didn't answer my question."

"None of your business," Dee replied, snatching the paper irritably out of Rose's hand and slamming it back onto the desk. "I'm working here."

"Really? That _is_ a surprise…."

"I swear to God, Rose, one more word…."

"Now, now, detective, what happened to your new respect for me?"

Dee bit back his retort and turned firmly back to the computer, carefully ignoring Rose's presence until the Commissioner simply got bored with being ignored and left in pursuit of a more interesting pastime.

Sighing, Dee muttered a quick prayer of gratitude as Rose departed, then reached for the phone.

XXX

Ryo blinked his eyes open as the distant sound of the phone ringing reached his ears. "Dee….?" he asked groggily, groping for the phone by the side of the bed. "Hello?" he slurred.

"Sorry….did I wake you up?"

"Yeah…." Ryo said around a yawn, managing to sit up halfway before he just gave it up as a pointless effort and pulled the covers up around him again. "What's up?"

"Nothing, I'm just trying to make some headway on our case."

"Really? How's it going?" Ryo asked, trying to sound interested as opposed to dead tired.

"Not good, I haven't found anything new. Don't worry about it, though. I just called to see how you were."

Ryo let another yawn slip out. "Fine," he replied.

"Did you take anything?"

"Yeah." Another yawn. "Sleepy…."

Dee chuckled. "Okay, go back to bed."

"What're you gonna do now?"

"Probably go visit Drake, see if he has any ideas. I've hit a dead end…."

Ryo laughed, but it turned into a wracking cough, and he quickly held the phone away from him as he reached for the glass of water next to him. When the fit finally died down, he brought the phone back to his ear and teased, "You're useless without me, you know that?"

Dee chuckled. "Believe me, I know. But I'll have to learn to cope, won't I?" He paused. "Go back to sleep."

The blond readily agreed. "Okay. Love you."

"I love you, too."

XXX

Dee paused outside the door of JJ's room, holding a bouquet of flowers that made him look and feel _very_ awkward. But somehow, it felt…right. JJ wouldn't want to be in a hospital room that didn't have any beauty to it. He would be most upset if he woke up to plain, boring white walls.

He didn't even stop to question his utter certainty that JJ _would_ wake up.

"Hey, Dee," Drake greeted his friend, smiling slightly as Dee entered the room. He was sitting in the same place he always was when anyone came to visit, his hand lightly clasping JJ's as he read the newspaper that was spread out on his lap. There was something different about today, though. Something about his eyes….

"Hey," Dee replied, smiling sheepishly as he handed Drake the flowers.

Drake's smile widened, though it didn't reach his eyes, and he gently untangled his hand from JJ's long enough to place them in the vase on the nightstand, which had been kept well-stocked with flowers. Nothing in the vase was ever dead for more than an hour before new color replaced the old. "How's the case coming?"

"Not so good. Lot of dead ends. How's JJ?"

Drake shrugged. "He's at the end of the rope, they're saying. He's getting worse by the hour. Doctors say he….I mean….they say he doesn't have much time left….that he's…." His voice broke, and he cleared his throat quickly. "They're morons." He clutched JJ's hand so hard his knuckles turned white, but other than that, he remained quite calm.

Dee felt his heart clench at the words, but he said nothing in reply. "Well I, uh….I dunno, I just needed a break, I guess. Ryo's sick and I'm barely keeping my head above all the work…." He paused, trying to think of something else to say. If Ryo had been here, Drake would have already broken down and the blond would be comforting him. Dee, however, was different. People didn't cry around him….something about his presence discouraged it. The silence finally grew awkward, so he solved the problem the only way he knew how. "I'm gonna go get some coffee. You…want anything?" He immediately kicked himself at the stupidity of the question. If _he_ were in Drake's shoes, he would simply stop eating and drinking as he waited for his time to follow his lover to wherever said man decided to go.

"….No thanks. I'm fine. I guess I should….I mean….JJ wrote up a will….back when all this started…. It's all…. I guess everything's taken care of."

A chilly, unfeeling hand wrapped its hand around Dee's heart and squeezed with an iron fist. It was almost as though JJ had _known_….

"Go get your coffee. I'm gonna….I mean…. Can you leave me alone for awhile? Please?"

Dee nodded slightly. "Sure. No problem, man."

XXX

Dee stood at the coffee machine down the hall from JJ's room. He had been standing there for half an hour, alternating between staring blankly at the machine and pacing up and down the hall in front of it, wondering when he should go back to be with Drake, or if he should go back at all.

He was just about to start pacing again when a group of doctors barreled past him, seeming not to realize he was there as they rushed towards JJ's room. Dee felt his stomach lurch as he followed them.

XXX

The battle was a short one, but at the same time, it dragged on endlessly. The room was a mass of confusion, with doctors and nurses shouting to one another, a lot of medical nonsense that few others would understand. Then, at last, the flurry of activity slowed, stopped, silenced. And into that silence, a single, sad, lonely voice spoke.

"Time of death, four forty-three p.m."


	6. Surprise

**Chapter 6—Surprise **

Dee stood in the hospital's lobby, his cell phone held in his shaking hands as he stared blankly at it. Things were happening so fast; it had all thrown him for a loop and left him completely numb. Sighing, he finally forced himself to dial his home number.

"Mmm….hello?" a voice asked after several rings.

"….You were still asleep?"

"Yeah….I feel like hell….hence the reason I took a _sick day_, Dee, lest we forget."

"Oh….right…."

"Dee? Is.…something wrong?" Ryo definitely sounded more awake now.

"I….think you need to come down to the hospital, Ryo…."

"….Why?"

XXX

Ryo hurried through the long, winding halls that seemed to have no end. Doctors and nurses scurried out of his way instead of waiting for him to scurry out of theirs; and good thing, too, because the chances were good that Ryo would have just knocked them over instead of bothering to change his course.

He finally found Dee standing outside JJ's room, his head in his hands. "Dee?" he asked softly, placing a hand on his lover's arm.

Dee looked up, blinking slowly, and the next thing Ryo knew, he was being yanked into a tight embrace.

"Dee? Are you….?"

"Yeah," Dee replied, quickly letting go of his lover. "I'm just…." He chuckled ruefully. "Never mind. He's in there." He nodded towards the door next to him.

Ryo smiled at him and started towards the door, then stopped and turned around. "You coming in?"

Dee shook his head. "I'm gonna stay here for awhile. You go in, though."

"Are you sure? Because—"

"I'm sure. I'm….sorta on a whirlwind here."

Ryo smiled slightly again, stepping forward and pulling Dee into another embrace. "You okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. Just….it's all happening really fast, is all."

"I know. C'mere." Then Ryo pulled his lover forward into a long, slow kiss, chuckling as he finally pulled away. "Now you're gonna be hacking up a lung, too."

"Oh? And whose fault is that?" Dee replied playfully, pulling Ryo in for another kiss. "I love you."

"I love you, too."

"Good." Dee smiled happily. "Now get in there."

XXX

Drake was sitting next to JJ's bed, holding his lover's hand lightly, staring down at it as it squeezed its own. They both looked over at the door and smiled when Ryo came in. The blond's hair was tousled from sleep, his clothes unmatched and hanging loosely on him, and he looked as though he had rolled out of bed and come straight to the hospital without really waking up, but he smiled back at them nevertheless and managed not to cough his guts out.

"Hi, Ryo," JJ greeted his friend in a tired voice that was raspy from lack of use. That voice was completely devoid of its usual energy, and the speech was slightly slurred, but Ryo just couldn't bring himself to care. It was JJ's voice. That was what mattered.

"Hey, JJ, how're you feeling?"

"Tired….but I can't feel anything. Drake said that's probably a good thing, because I'd feel like total hell otherwise…." He tried to shift, and failed, finding that he simply couldn't move anything. "Damn, these are some good drugs…."

Ryo laughed, then turned to Drake. "So….what the _hell_ happened?" he asked. "Dee wasn't good for much on the phone, he was so completely freaked out."

"I expect he would be," JJ replied, smiling happily at hearing that his former flame had been so worried about him.

Drake just smiled and shrugged in answer to Ryo's question. "I have no idea what happened, to tell you the truth, and I don't really care. I got what I want."

JJ's smile grew to an all out grin, and he squeezed Drake's hand lightly. "The doctors said I should be fine," he informed Ryo. "They said I still have a long road ahead of me—skin grafts and therapy and all that crap. But they said I won't have my next surgery for another few weeks, at least. Probably longer. The two breaks hurt more than anything else….damn, even the drugs can only do so much." (JJ had sustained rather serious breaks in his collar bone and his elbow.) "They said it was a miracle I'm even alive….but…." He shrugged. "How should I know, right?"

Ryo smiled slightly. "Okay, well, I'll….leave you two alone. I'm gonna go find the doctor and see if he'll tell me anything. You want some lunch or anything when I get back, Drake?"

Drake laughed as his stomach made a loud, strange noise. "….I guess I _am_ hungry….who knew?"

Ryo chuckled. "Okay, I'll bring something back for you. I'm assuming you don't want anything from the cafeteria, so I'll go out and get you something from somewhere else."

"Ah, you're the best, Ryo."

Ryo grinned. "I know."

XXX

"How is he?"

"He seems fine. I'm gonna go find Dr. English, and then I told Drake I'd go out and get him some lunch. He must be starving…."

"Oh, no you don't," Dee said, grabbing the blond's arm as he started to walk away. "You're not going anywhere. You're sick, remember?"

"Well, you're the one who called me down here. Might as well make myself useful."

"You can do that by going in and sitting down and visiting with Drake and JJ, and letting me do all the work."

"But—"

"I'll tell you everything Dr. English says and I'll bring you back some food, okay? Now….go in there and sit down, or go home. Those are your choices. No buts."

"….But—"

XXX

A few hours later, Dee had interrogated four doctors before he finally found the only one willing to give him any information, fed both Drake _and_ Ryo, and driven Ryo back to their apartment after an hour-long visit with JJ. Now he was back at work, and after he told Rose and the Chief the news about JJ, he closed himself up in his office and forced himself to get to work.

If anything, JJ's return from the brink had made Dee even more determined to catch the man who had put him in the hospital in the first place. He returned to work with a new determination as evening started to fall, and at last, he came up with something he could use.

XXX

JJ slept for half the afternoon, but he awoke again at about nine o'clock to find Drake still sitting next to the bed. He had finally withdrawn his hand to hold the newspaper with both hands, but he quickly dropped it when he saw JJ blink his eyes open.

"Hey, they haven't kicked you out yet?" JJ asked sleepily.

"Nope. I convinced the doc to let me stay tonight."

"You really don't have to, you know…."

Drake smiled and took JJ's hand. "Yes I do. Go back to sleep."

JJ returned Drake's smile with a tired one of his own. "I've slept more than I care to ever sleep again," he replied—which wasn't entirely true, but he couldn't bring himself to leave Drake without anyone to talk to.

The hand holding JJ's tightened momentarily, and Drake looked down at the sheets. JJ looked confused, but waited for him to speak, which he did a moment later. "JJ…."

No reply—JJ sensed that Drake had something to get off his chest.

"When you….you know. When it….happened…." He blinked, then looked back up at JJ. "Why are you still alive?'

"Because I love you, of course. I had to come back to you."

Drake marveled at how easily that came for JJ. The hyperactive man seemed to have no trouble getting those three words out, and when he had first said them to Drake (incidentally, only about a week before the accident), they had sent the poor man reeling. He still had not managed to say them back.

"…._Why_?"

Much to Drake's surprise—and mild irritation—JJ laughed. "I knew that was coming. And….I'm not going to answer."

"….What?"

"I'm not going to answer. Because if you seriously have to ask, then….you don't deserve to know."

Drake blinked. It made no sense, but somehow, he understood completely. He smiled slightly. "Go to sleep, JJ."

"Mmm….okay," JJ replied, letting his eyes fall shut. He was tired again.

"….JJ?" Drake asked softly, after about ten minutes.

"….Hmm….?" The sound was very quiet, and it was clear that JJ was more than halfway to sleep.

"I love you, too."

JJ chuckled, and couldn't even bring himself to feign surprise. He was no more awake now than he had been before, and even if he'd felt the need to open his eyes, he wouldn't have tried to. "Took you long enough."

XXX

Dee finally came home at about ten o'clock that night to find Ryo passed out on the bed, an open book lying across his chest. The only illumination in the room was the single lamp that burned beside the bed, its gentle glow touching Ryo's face with soft fingers. Smiling slightly, Dee went over and took the book off his lover, marking the page and placing it on the bedside table. Then he turned off the light and pulled the covers tighter around his lover, before grabbing a pair of sweatpants and going into the bathroom to shower.

XXX

Ryo stirred as he felt the bed shift next to him, and blinked his eyes open to find himself in a dark room and a tight embrace. "Dee?" he asked sleepily, moving closer to the familiar chest and closing his eyes again. "What time is it?"

"Late," Dee replied. "Sorry to wake you."

"It's fine. I've been sleeping all day."

"And you're still tired?"

Ryo replied with a wide yawn. "Seem to be. How's the case coming along?"

"All right. Go back to sleep. I'll fill you in tomorrow, if you feel like coming into work."

"Mmm…I will." From the sound of his voice, the blond was already falling back to sleep.

Dee chuckled quietly, and hugged his lover lightly. "Sleep."

"Okay…."

Dee kissed Ryo's head forehead lightly. "I love you, Ryo," he whispered, before drifting off into dreams next to his lover, for once not kept awake until dawn wondering what was going to happen to JJ.


	7. Realization

**Chapter 7—Realization**

"So what were you talking about last night? What'd you find?"

Dee smiled as Ryo set a mug of coffee in front of him and took his own seat across from his lover. "Thanks. You're sick, though, you shouldn't be waiting on me hand and foot."

"I'm not, but I _would_ like to keep you from breaking or cracking anything else. I need you to help me see this thing through."

Laughing, Dee replied, "I'm fine, Ryo. Really."

"Then why was your bottle of painkillers completely empty this morning?"

"….I'm choosing not to answer that. Now do you want to hear what I have to say or not?"

Ryo sighed. "Don't think you can make me forget this conversation—we're continuing it later. But….yes, tell me."

"Well, could be nothing, but….I did some digging last night, and you'll never guess who Russell's attending doctor is."

"Oh? Who?" Ryo asked, stirring his peppermint tea idly.

"His older brother."

Ryo blinked. "_What_?"

Dee nodded. "Richard Jarvis. And from what I read, he went to a _hell_ of a lot of trouble to get Russell committed to that particular hospital."

"….Well, maybe he was just trying to make sure that his brother got the right kind of care."

"Yeah, maybe. But in this business, it doesn't pay to take chances."

Ryo chuckled. "I'll agree with you there." He paused, looking down at his tea. "Should we head on over there to talk to him?"

Dee stood. "I'll go. You stay, and I'll call you later, okay?" He leaned over to give Ryo a quick kiss. "I love you. Get some rest, and lock the door behind me, all right?"

"Yes, Daddy," Ryo teased, smiling and pulling Dee into another quick kiss.

XXX

Half an hour later, Dee stood outside the door to Russell's room at the psychiatric hospital, his arm poised to knock. He frowned and dropped it quickly, though, when the broken sounds of a conversation coming from inside caught his attention.

"….too obvious….we're risking getting caught…."

"No, we're not."

"Rich….I need my meds."

Silence.

"Thanks."

"No problem, kiddo, but you have to listen to me….these guys aren't going to stop coming….and they're too good at what they do._ You have to get rid of them._"

"I can't…."

"You_ can_, you _have_ to. Otherwise we're both going to get caught, and you won't get off on an insanity plea this time."

"But—"

"Russ, listen to me. Have I ever steered you wrong?"

Silence, during which Dee assumed Russell was shaking his head.

"No, I haven't. So trust me when I tell you that these guys have got to go. You can do it."

"No, I…." Russell's voice was weakening now—as was his resolve, apparently. Dee could almost see the reluctant nod, and then Russell's voice said, so quietly that Dee had to press his ear firmly against the door to catch the words, "….All right….all right…."

Then, a moment later, footsteps approached the door, and Dee quickly left the hallway and headed back down to the lobby, his mind swirling with thoughts of what he had just heard.

XXX

"So, what do we do now?"

Drake sighed, and shrugged. He had gotten more sleep lately than he had before JJ had woken up, but he still spent every possible moment at JJ's side. "Hey, dude, I'm not even on the case anymore, so…."

"Yeah, but you guys are a hell of a lot better than Rose…. I just want to know what you think the best move would be."

"Why don't you just talk to Ryo?"

"I don't want to bother him if I don't have to. I don't even think he should be on this case…."

Drake blinked. "What? Why?"

"….Never mind. Just….look, I've got to get this guy before he gets Ryo. I mean….look what he did to JJ, and JJ's not even the one he was after. Who knows _what_ the hell he'd do to Ryo if he had half the chance."

"….He's had plenty of chances, though," JJ commented. He was propped up slightly in bed and looked a bit more lively, and he looked quite eager to be included in the investigation. "And he hasn't taken any of them."

"Yeah, why do you think that is?" Drake added.

Dee blinked—he'd never considered that before. Ryo had spent a lot of time alone at the apartment lately….admittedly with the door bolted and the windows rather too high to access, but still…. Something tickled the back of Dee's mind, some sort of important information, but it kept eluding him. "I don't really know…." He paused. "I guess I should go back and talk to Richard….see if I can get anything useful." Then he shoved all thoughts of the case from his mind momentarily. "What about you, JJ? How are you doing?"

"They're actually saying I might be able to leave soon. Drake convinced them that I would do just as well at his house as I am here. I mean, all they're giving me is painkillers and crap, anyway…..they're not really doing anything else for me. I don't have a temperature or any brain damage, I'm perfectly coherent and…._almost_ totally sane…."

Drake chuckled. "Very nearly."

Dee grinned. "That's good to hear."

Silence fell, and then JJ said, "Oh, for God's sake, Dee, get back to the case, I can tell you're dying to."

Another grin, and after a quick goodbye, Dee was out the door.

XXX

Dee finally returned to the apartment well after eleven to find Ryo sleeping peacefully on the couch, a box of tissues on the coffee table besides him and a cold mug of tea next to it. Smiling fondly at the blond, Dee quietly went over and, after observing the scene, stroked Ryo's hair lightly. "Ryo?"

Ryo stirred, then opened his eyes slightly before letting them fall closed again. "Hmm?"

"Think you can wake up enough to get back to bed?"

"….No…."

Chuckling, Dee shook his head and reached over to pull Ryo up. "C'mon, Ryo, you're too heavy to carry…..you just have to walk a little bit and then you can go back to sleep."

Grumbling, Ryo stumbled to his and Dee's room, fell into the bed, curled up under the covers, and was asleep almost immediately.

Frowning in concern, Dee felt Ryo's forehead. The blonde's temperature did not seem to have gone down at all—in fact, it may have risen a bit in Dee's absence. His brow furrowed, Dee changed quickly into his pajamas, crawled under the covers, and took his lover's shivering form protectively into his arms.

Thoughts of losing Ryo began to race through his head, becoming more unsettling—no, downright _terrifying_—as the night wore on. His questioning of Richard had yielded few results. He had left the meeting with a feeling that the doctor was hiding something, but in a business like Dee's, there had to be more than guesses and suspicions to go on. It was beginning to look like he was going to lose Ryo before the case was solved….

_No_, Dee told the voice in his head firmly. He would _not_ let that happen. Not ever. Ryo would outlive him. He would make certain of it.

He _had_ to make certain of it….

He had to, because losing Ryo would be the one and only thing that would thoroughly break his spirit, his sense of self, his reason for going on. Ryo _was_ all of those things. There was no one else.

It was Ryo. It had always been Ryo. And if Dee had to sacrifice everything else he had, he would do it, if it meant that it always _would_ be Ryo.

Dee smiled slightly as Ryo moved closer to him and whispered his name. The smile grew wider, and Dee pressed a light kiss to his lover's forehead. "I love you, Ryo."

XXX

The next morning, Ryo felt much better, but he was still running a slight fever and looked rather unwell, so Dee insisted that he stay home and rest some more.

"Well….what are you going to do?" the blond asked, knowing that it was best not to argue with Dee when the raven-haired detective was intent on preserving his lover's well-being.

"I'm going to go to Rockwell and do some sniffing around. See if I can't get something more out of Richard than I did yesterday. Oh, and I gotta pick up some more of your meds, too…." He leaned over and pulled Ryo into a long, slow kiss. "Get some rest, baby, and get your fever down. I miss you at work."

"Well, I _could_ be working right now, only you won't let me," Ryo replied teasingly, pulling Dee back down for another kiss. "Find out as much as you can, but hurry back, okay? It gets lonely around here with Bikky at school and you out working…."

"I'll hurry back, I promise." One more kiss, and then Dee reluctantly started towards the door. He stopped in the doorway and turned his head. "I love you, Ryo." And for some reason, the words held even more meaning today than they usually did.

Ryo smiled. "I love you, too."

XXX

"What do you _mean_? Why the hell would he leave?"

"Calm down, Mr. Laytner…."

"No, you don't understand….I have to talk to him. And he was pretty damn set on never leaving this place last time I talked to him. What changed?"

"I really don't know, dear. All I know is that he was cleared to leave and he did."

"Do you know where he is now?"

"No, but his brother might."

"Where can I find _him_, then?"

"I really have no idea, dear."

Dee swore quietly, and looked around the room idly, his mind racing with ideas of what to do next. He got himself under control after a moment, thanked the receptionist, and left.

Outside in the bright sunlight, where it almost seemed as though nothing bad could possibly be happening, Dee reevaluated his priorities and, after a minute, decided it would be best to just go home to Ryo and talk to him about what to do next.

Having decided this, Dee drove to the drugstore to grab Ryo various medicines—some to alleviate his headache, some for his stomach, and some for his coughing and sneezing. Then, at the checkout, he cursed as he took out his wallet and found it empty. "Will you take a check?" he asked the smiling girl behind the counter, his voice filled with exasperation and impatience. He just wanted to get home to Ryo….why did the universe have to make that so damn hard?

"Sure will," the girl replied, that annoying, perky, ever-present smile still on her face.

It was only while he was writing the date on the check that the piece of information that had been eluding him earlier clicked into place in his head. The pen dropped from his suddenly limp hand, causing a dark blue mark to appear across the check, and Dee whispered, "Oh my God…."


	8. Rain

**Chapter 8—Rain**

Dee's heart pounded in his chest as he dodged through the throngs on the New York City sidewalk, ignoring the ache in his still-healing ribs and the sharp pains that shot through his bandaged arms every time he slammed into someone. (There was a huge difference between holding Ryo in those arms and bashing them against every surface he was rushing too much to avoid.) He knocked down four different people and caused a woman coming out of a department store to drop all six of her bags, but he didn't stop to listen to the curses they hurled at him as he bolted towards the apartment building that was his destination. Through the halls….up the stairs….and at last, he was in front of the apartment door. His fingers fumbled uselessly at the key ring for a moment before he finally managed to find the right key and jam it into the lock.

"Ryo!" he yelled, almost before he'd gotten the door open. He nearly fell through the doorway in his haste to get inside….only to that the room he was facing was completely empty. His heart sped up to an even more erratic pace, and he bolted towards his and Ryo's bedroom. Empty….as was Bikky's room….the kitchen….

"Damn it!"

XXX

Ryo groaned, turning his head to the side as he tried to open his eyes. He couldn't do it, but the tiny movement sent a pain through his head that caused his churning stomach to rebel, and he turned his head to the side and thre up everything he'd managed to keep down during the course of that day.

_Damn it_, his head muttered to him, as he finally opened his eyes slowly and looked around. His eyes took several moments to adjust to the darkness, and when they did, they fell on the man who was sitting against the wall and facing him.

"….Russell?" he muttered, blinking several times before trying to sit up. He sank to the floor, though, as his stomach rolled again and a white-hot pain shot through his head again.

Russell Jarvis looked at Ryo sadly before moving to help him sit up. "I'm sorry about your head," he said softly. "I only wanted to disorient you a little…."

"I'm sure," Ryo replied sarcastically, not fighting the hands that dragged him over to lean with his back to the wall. "You know….most lunatics tie people up when they kidnap them…."

"Yes, I know, but….somehow I didn't think you'd run…. You're too thirsty for information to run. You don't look well, are you all right?"

"Oh, yeah, just _peachy_," Ryo muttered, prodding the back of his head and wincing when his fingers found the huge lump at the base of his skull and the bruise that was spreading from it. "Where the hell are we?"

"I really have no idea. Here…." Russell handed him a water bottle. "Drink."

Ryo stared at him, but his thirst won over his suspicion, and he drank deeply from the bottle. The cool liquid revived him a little, and he looked over at his captor as he finished drinking. "Why did you bring me here?"

Russell opened his mouth to reply….and snapped it shut again, as his phone began to ring. He pulled it out, looked at the name of the caller, and then quickly flipped it open.

"Who—?"

That was all Ryo got out before something hard slammed over his head and the world went black once more.

XXX

Back at his and Ryo's apartment, Dee was frantically dialing Ryo's number for the fourth time. Receiving no answer once more, he slammed it shut irritably and walked—or rather, dashed—towards the door. Enough was enough. He yanked it open….only to find Drake standing outside it, his arm raised to knock on the door. His face was a mixture of anger, exasperation, and worry, and JJ was sitting in a wheelchair in front of him.

"Have you found him yet?" Drake asked immediately, as JJ pushed past him into the apartment.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Dee asked, hitting the number one on his speed dial for the fifth time.

"He checked himself out," Drake replied in an irritated voice. "The minute you called, he checked himself out and just….left. Made me bring him here. Where's Ryo?"

"I have no idea," the frantic detective replied, slamming his phone shut. He was dangerously close to hysteria now.

"Did you call the precinct?" JJ asked.

"No, I've been trying to reach Ryo." He tried calling a sixth time.

"Well, you really ought to call and—"

"Yeah, yeah, I know…." Dee muttered, snapping his phone shut and then opening it again to dial the number of Rose's office.

XXX

When Ryo awoke this time, it was to find Russell leaning over him, looking dejected and….depressed?

"Y'know, Russ, all this knocking me out with blunt objects is really starting to put a damper on our relationship," he muttered, trying to sit up, only to find that he was restrained by the ropelike binding around his wrists and ankles. "….What happened to figuring I wouldn't run away?"

Russell shrugged helplessly. "I'm sorry," he apologized, although it wasn't entirely clear what he was apologizing _for_. People didn't generally apologize for this sort of thing. They just…._did_ it. "This wasn't how things were supposed to turn out…."

"Oh?" Ryo replied with a grimace, twisting his hands in the ropes as he tried to remove them. He was beginning to worry now….they appeared to be in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by trees and an empty highway and little else. However, as he was Ryo and he was very stubborn, there was no conceivable way that he was going to actually _show_ that he was afraid.

"Yes…. I'd planned to talk to you. Try to make you see reason. This was going to be a last resort…."

"I'm sure it was," Ryo replied, playing long, trying to buy time until he could get loose—or better yet, until Dee came to the rescue. Ryo really didn't feel like running for his life at the moment—his fever was raging, his stomach rolled angrily, his head pounded, and he had the faint feeling that his legs wouldn't be able to support him even if they _were_ free from their bonds. "But Russell—"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Stockwell," Russell interrupted suddenly.

"Mr.—? No, Russell, I'm not—"

"Oh, sir….please….don't make this harder than it already is…." The man reached into his jacket and pulled out a gun—where he had gotten it, the blond couldn't even begin to guess.

Ryo swallowed, and struggled harder to rid himself of his bonds, not bothering to try to hide his actions anymore. _Damn it, damn it, damn it_…. _Oh, Dee, where are you?_

Russell readied the gun, his face a mask now. "Please understand, sir….I hold you in the highest respect, I really do. I think we might even have been friends if you hadn't been the one assigned to my case….all those years ago…."

The blonde's movements grew even more frantic. The ropes cut into his wrists, and the hot, sticky feeling of blood running down his hands caused his stomach to churn and heave, but he forced himself to keep his wits about him. He would _not_ die without a fight. "Russell, you're making a mistake, I'm not—"

"Jason," Russell interrupted quietly, his neutral expression still in place. "Enough."

The gunshot deafened them both. The second was faint in Ryo's ears. Then the third hit him, his whole body jerked….

He lay completely still, the blood pouring from his body, and silence settled over the woods.

It was finished.

XXX

Dee sat in Rose's office, his head buried in his hands. He didn't know how much longer he could take this….or even why he had taken it for this long. The only conclusion he could come to was that his lover must have been a bad influence on him. Before Ryo MacLean had become his partner, Dee would have already hunted down the suspect, hauled him in, and tossed his ass in jail. And now here he was, reporting to Rose, waiting for the verdict, and thinking about things before he rushed headlong into them.

Yes, Ryo had definitely been a bad influence on him.

Rose was talking to him, but it washed over his head as he was consumed by worry for his lover. His heart clenched—something was wrong. Ryo was _not_ all right. Why the _hell_ had Dee chosen to go to Rose first? Why had he spent so much time trying to call Ryo? Why wasn't he out _looking_ for him?

"Laytner, are you paying attention to me?"

"No, sir," Dee replied, his voice flat. He bolted out of his chair, suddenly furious with himself. "We're wasting time here. Ryo is out there somewhere….with Russell. And if we don't find them both, Ryo's going to—" He cut himself off with a strangled gasp. _Die_.

That decided it. He had his gun, and he was going after Ryo. Ignoring the protests that Drake, JJ, and Rose all threw at him, he started to wrench open the door….and stopped as his cell phone began to ring. Pulling it out of his pocket with trembling hands, he fumbled with it for a moment before managing to get it open and hold it up to his ear. "Ryo?" he asked, his voice coming out hopeful and terrified and shaky and pleading all at once.

"….Detective Laytner…."

Dee immediately recognized Russell's voice. "Jarvis," he snarled. "Where the _hell_ is he? What did you do to him?"

"Detective…." Russell's tone was quiet and beseeching….and anything but emotionless. "I'm sorry that I….took so long to call…. Sir, I need you to meet me….in the alley where you arrested David Marks. Do you remember where that is?"

"Well….yeah, I do, but—"

"Good. Meet me there as soon as possible….please." The line went dead.

"Jarvis?" Rose asked rhetorically.

"He wants me to meet him at the place where we arrested Marks…." He paused, and then wrenched open the door.

"Dee, where do you think you're going?" JJ demanded.

"To meet Jarvis, what do you think I'm doing?"

"Dee, I'm not—"

"Don't even try it, JJ," Dee snarled, and then took off down the hall.

Rose's office remained quiet for a moment, and then JJ asked quietly, still facing the empty doorway, "Commissioner, do you know where that arrest was made?"

"….Yes…."

JJ turned his head to look at Rose. "Take me there."

"….Adams, you're off duty. You're not technically allowed to come to work. You're not even supposed to know what's going on with this case, and—"

"I can still shoot a gun. So get me mine, and take me there."

"But—" Drake protested.

"_Now_, damn it!"

XXX

Dee walked into the alley with every one of his guards up. It was dark, the city lights not quite managing to bathe it in their harsh glow, and Dee couldn't see much of what was in front of him, so the miserable voice that suddenly issued from the shadows startled him greatly.

"Thank you for coming, Detective."

"Where's Ryo?" Dee snarled, readying the gun he held out in front of him.

"I'll tell you, sir….but, please, there's no need for the gun. Listen to what I have to say, and then I'll come quietly, I promise."

Dee did not lower his gun. "_Where is Ryo_?"

At that, Russell finally stepped out of the shadows….and that was when Dee saw the look on his face. It was not the expression of a man who had triumphed, or done what he'd set out to do. It was the expression of a man who was at the end of his rope, had no idea where to turn, and would not be able to forget the pain he had inflicted on others if he lived to be a thousand years old. His hands were in his pockets, his shoulders were hunched, and he looked as though he would very much like to curl up and die right then and there. "I'm…. 'Sorry' is not the right word, sir. Jason Stockwell….the man you call 'Ryo'….has gone back to his resting place." He plunged on, as he saw Dee's hands began to shake. "Please, you have to understand! They said it was for the best! _They told me it was for the best_!"

"What are you saying?" Dee asked, his voice quiet and controlled. He didn't really need to ask, though. He already knew.

Drake and Rose had come into the alley behind him, guns at the ready, and JJ—sans wheelchair—was standing under his own power, his anger and fear seeming to give him the strength and will to move on his own. He stood next to Drake, radiating fury, his gun at his side. When he needed it, he would use it, and use it well.

Dee, however, ignored them. His consciousness had shrunk to Russell's face. His hands were shaking—no, his whole body was shaking—and he was absolutely dead inside. He felt no sadness, no grief….nothing but the blinding, overwhelming need to tear apart the man standing in front of him.

A cry tore from him as he tossed the gun aside and lunged. His fellow officers did nothing to stop him….they would not have been able to. At this point, he would have destroyed them along with Russell.

The detective and his target hit the floor in a tangled heap, and then Dee's fists became Russell's entire world.

JJ moved forward into Drake's arms, hiding his face in his lover's strong shoulder and sobbing quietly. Rose looked on without moving to stop Dee, the neutral mask on his face completely broken. He looked as though his own world were falling apart around his ears.

The beating went on and on, and Dee had no desire to end it. The punches grew gradually lighter as his strength ebbed, however, until they finally stopped, and Dee hunched over Russell's unconscious body. His body heaved with dry, empty sobs, as he continued to hit the prostrate man with weak, broken punches that were really nothing more than a fist lifting and falling, lifting and falling.

Three guns hit the ground in unison, and then the alley fell silent aside from Dee's heaving sobs. No one moved to comfort him. No one _could_ comfort him.

As Dee's entire world shattered, a heavy rain started to fall.

_Ryo always loved the rain_…


	9. Empty

Okay, guys, this is just a short look at what everyone is thinking in the aftermath of Ryo's death, before we get on to the rest of the story. Everyone is very out of character, but….c'mon, their very good friend just died!

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**Chapter 9—Empty**

The apartment was dark and silent, the curtains drawn against the cheerful sunlight outside. The place's occupant felt as though the sun had no right no shine now.

A small group was gathered in the living room, which was just as dark and gloomy as the rest of the apartment. The two men had no reason to go to work—the case had been closed.

As it turned out, Russell Jarvis really _had_ been nothing more than a victim of a bigger plot. He had been telling the truth when he'd said that he stayed in the mental hospital because he was afraid of what he might do. He'd had no idea that his older brother, Richard Jarvis, had been depriving him of his medication, replacing it with placebos.

After Ryo's death, Drake had been at the computer for two full days, doing his best to finish wrapping up the case with Rose's help, and the two had stumbled upon the missing piece of the puzzle.

Ryo, as it turned out, had put away a very dear friend of Richard's on charges of drug smuggling, rape, and one count of attempted murder. Richard had been most displeased, and soon after, the answer to his trouble with the officers came in the form of his younger brother. Playing on the young man's trust in him, Richard convinced Russell that Jason Stockwell had come back to kill him and his brothers, and Russell bought the lie hook, line, and sinker.

Meanwhile, Robert Jarvis had been pulled into the plot out of family loyalty, and nothing else. He had been the one who bombed JJ's car and had been acting as Richard's eyes and ears for the outside world while Richard kept tabs on the goings-on inside the hospital, and Russell had simply followed the orders of what his older brother made him believe were "the voices in his head."

David Marks, it had been discovered, had also had a hand in all of this. He had been the one to tell Russell that Ryo was "alive again" and had been the first to come up with the plan to get Ryo gone. It had been his brother that Ryo had sent to jail, which explained his eagerness to get in on Ryo's untimely demise. So he had come up with the plan to kill Ryo, while carefully working it out so that Russell would get off on another insanity plea and Richard and Robert would not be suspected of anything. Marks himself would have likewise remained free of suspicion, had it not been for his unfortunate arrest for arson, drug trafficking, and aggravated assault.

Now Richard, Robert, and Marks were rotting in jail together, and Russell was under twenty-four-hour watch by Richard's replacement, a kindly old man who really wanted nothing more than to help put back together the fragmented pieces of Russell's sanity.

But none of the people in the room were thinking about any of that at the moment.

JJ was stretched out on the couch with his head in Drake's lap and his eyes on the door to the bedroom, the intense pain he had been in lately eased by the massive amounts of painkillers he had been taking. He had not checked back into the hospital, but had consented to receive care from a house-calling member of the hospital staff. He and Drake, who had also been given paid leave so that he could stay with JJ, had not left Dee's house, as JJ felt he needed to be there in case something happened. It wasn't a situation that happened often, but JJ could be very….convincing, when he needed to be. He was a lot more like Dee sometimes than anyone else would ever have expected, and with a combination of threats, tears, and pleading, he had kept himself out of the hospital and Drake out of the precinct, and now here they were, waiting anxiously for some sort of reprieve from the current situation.

Sister Maria Lane sat in the armchair by the window, staring thoughtfully into space and fingering the silver crucifix around her neck. She had come over the minute JJ called her and had not left since, except to go on a shopping trip. It had been she who had cooked, kept the apartment clean, and unsuccessfully tried to force food down Dee's throat. Her quiet presence comforted even the most faithless people in the room—Sister Maria had that effect on people.

Carol lay curled in Bikky's arms on the floor, and having cried herself out completely, she was simply staring at nothing, moving as close to Bikky as she could for comfort. Bikky, however, had not shed a single tear—he would not allow himself to break. Not now.

"Do you….think he's going to come out?" JJ asked quietly, his eyes not moving from their position on Dee's closed bedroom door.

Drake shook his head sadly. "I don't know, JJ…. I just don't know."

XXX

Berkeley Rose sat at his desk, staring at the stack of papers in front of him without really seeing it. The precinct was far too quiet without JJ's usual hyperactivity, without Ryo making his constant reports on the current state of his cases, without Dee's frequent curses and irritated yells. The heart and soul of the 27th had died along with Ryo.

A quiet knock came at the door, and then it opened without Rose's permission.

"….Berkeley?" The voice was unusually quiet and subdued.

"This isn't a good time, Diana," Rose replied, not looking up.

"I know," FBI agent Diana Spacey replied, shutting the door softly behind her and coming into the room. "But….there's still work to do, Berkeley. It can't all come to a halt because…." She trailed off, just as incapable as the rest of them of putting any of her emotions into words. Sighing softly, she placed a file on the corner of Rose's desk. "We've got a new case….state police wanted it handed over to you guys. We've got a lead on an underground prostitution ring, and—"

"I'll get to it later," Berkeley replied, finally meeting her eyes. "Please, Dee Dee….for once in my life….can't I just act like the man who's lost one of his friends? Do I always have to be the strong one?"

Diana shrugged wordlessly.

"….All right…. I'll finish this paperwork, and then look at the file. Now….please….let me be alone?"

"Okay, Berkeley," Diana replied, nodding helplessly. "I'll….see you at home?"

"Yes….see you at home…." The commissioner sounded like his mind wasn't really on the current conversation, however.

Diana left, and after several long moments, Rose did what he had always been taught to do—what the police academy had taught him to do. He had lost a comrade, and he had given himself three days to grieve and dwell on it. Now it was time to get back to work.

And Ryo had left so very much work behind….

XXX

Back at the apartment, Dee lay in his bed, his eyes firmly pinned to the ceiling. It might as well not have been there, however, for all the notice he really took of it. At that moment, the roof could have caved in and a missile with an atomic warhead attached could have slammed into his pillow, and he probably wouldn't have blinked.

He felt nothing….saw nothing….thought nothing. There was only pain. His head swarmed with images of the one thing that would make it all better….the one thing he didn't have, and would never have again. He could suddenly remember every single moment he had ever shared with Ryo—the first time they'd met, the first time Ryo had smiled at him, the first time they'd touched, the first time they'd kissed….and every touch, kiss, and smile that had come after that. Everything came into his head with complete clarity, and he couldn't make it go away. He couldn't even cry over it. He was just….dead inside.

There was a soft knock on the door, and then it opened slightly. "Dee?" Bikky's voice asked quietly.

Dee didn't move, or indicate that he even remembered Bikky's existence.

"Dee….there's food out here….if you want some…."

No reply.

With a quiet sight, Bikky backed out of the room and closed the door silently.

After the boy left, Dee hauled himself off the mattress for the first time in the three days since Ryo's death. He walked slowly over to the closet and pulled it open, staring at its contents before pulling out the only clean dress shirt that was there.

Going back to the bed, he stretched back out, but his eyes did not return to the ceiling. His fingers stroked the smooth fabric of Ryo's shirt as the whirlwind of pictures in his head began to swirl and change. Now he saw Ryo being shot, the light going out of his eyes, a red stain spreading through his shirt….and then he saw the blond dying alone. So completely, totally alone.

Now Dee was the one who was alone. And he knew, to the very core of his soul, that he always would be. No one would ever be to him what Ryo had….and he didn't want them to be.

The tears finally came as he turned over on his side, curled up, and held the shirt to his face. No matter how many times they were washed, the blonde's clothes always carried his scent. That scent filled his senses now, seeping into his mind and his heart and pulling forth the emotions that he had kept buried for what felt like so long. He cried silently—there were no sobs or blubbering or whimpers. There were only tears….a flood of salty, warm, empty tears that did nothing to soothe his turbulent soul.

Another knock came at the door, but it did not register in Dee's brain any more than it had in the times before. The door opened. It was Sister Maria this time. "Dee, dear, you really should—" she began, and then stopped when she saw Dee's back trembling with pent-up emotion. He sniffled, and a distressed, concerned look took over Sister Maria's face. Slowly, she went over to him, climbed onto the bed, and stretched out on her side next to him. Stroking his hair gently, she placed a light kiss on his shoulder (as his cheek was out of reach) and rested her head next to Dee's on the pillow. Then she changed her position slightly, and after that, did nothing else. She simply lay there, stroking his arm with her chin on his shoulder, and simply let him cry.

Bikky followed soon after, stopping in the doorway to take in the scene. Then, in a very un-Bikky-like gesture, he came over to the other side of the bed and curled up with his back against Dee's chest. Taking Dee's hand, he put it around himself and moved as close as he possibly could to the man that was the only father he had left. Dee buried his face in the boy's hair and closed his eyes.

JJ came next in his wheelchair, with Drake following him. The silver-haired man wheeled himself over to the bed and stood up from the wheelchair, waving his lover away as Drake tried to rush forward and helped him. Then he climbed into the bed next to Bikky, facing Dee, and gently took the hand that was around Bikky, giving it a light squeeze, which was returned gratefully. Drake sat in the chair next to the bed, stroking JJ's hair lightly, and watched as Carol came in, curled up in a tight ball in the space between Dee's and Sister Maria's legs, and placed her head on Dee's knee and her arm right next to it.

The group fell asleep in that position, each offering Dee what silent comfort they could give. Ryo was gone, but Dee was still there.

It was up to his friends to take care of him now.


	10. Return to the Light

Confession! I have no idea how far from New York City one would have to drive before getting to a more rural area, so I'm winging it here. Don't get mad at me!

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**Chapter 10—Return to the Light **

Ryo groaned and turned his head, his mind slowly returning to consciousness. As his brain came into focus, he began to register the details of his surroundings….at least, as well as he could do so without opening his eyes, which were being stubborn and resisting any type of movement.

He was laying on something soft….not a forest floor, or anything of the sort. It was….a bed? And he was pleasantly warm and covered in thick blankets. The room was filled with the sound of air rushing out of the heating vents, and without opening his eyes, Ryo knew that it was dark. His chest and shoulder ached furiously, and when he shifted slightly, the rather large amount of pain the movement caused was enough to discourage him from trying it again.

The detective tried to force his eyes open again, and this time, they complied. He blinked several times and slowly turned his head, ignoring the jab of pain the action sent through his skull. The door to the room was cracked, allowing a sliver of light into the room, but the curtains were drawn on the windows against the light of the setting sun. The place was rather plain, and looked like the inside of a country home.

_Country home_...._?_ Ryo's mind registered. _But_...._why would there be a country home in New York City?  
_

The only logical answer, of course, was that he was no longer _in_ New York City.

Ryo was startled out of his thoughts when the door opened, and a semi-tall man who looked to be in his seventies poked his head around the doorway. His hair was gray and short, his body thin but strong-looking, and his face tan and weather-beaten. "Ah, so you've finally woken up," he said. "About time, too, soldier…."

The blond blinked in a bewildered sort of way. "Who....?"

"Desmond Verne of the United States Marine Corps," the man replied, saluting. His eyes twinkled with humor as he came into the room and closed the door behind him. Walking over to the bed, he turned on the lamp next to it and sat down on the bed. The light was clearly at its dimmest setting, and after a moment, the ache it caused in Ryo's eyes began to fade. "How do you feel?"

Ryo shrugged slightly. "All right, I guess.... Why am I not dead?"

"You would have been, except I was driving back home from the city and I heard the gun go off. Found you lying in your own blood not far from the highway and brought you here."

"….Why didn't you take me to the hospital?"

"Good God, man, I have no patience for hospitals! I was a military doctor for twenty-five years, I like to think I know _something_ about treating gunshot wounds."

"Oh…." Ryo replied, trying to push himself up on his arms in spite of the fiery pains in his chest and shoulder. Verne reached out to help him, and in a moment, Ryo was leaning against the headboard of the bed. "How long have I been out?"

"About four days. Not bad, considering you were shot three times, and two of the wounds would have been fatal if they'd been left untreated any longer. I expected you to be out for at least a week."

"Yeah, well, I'm a quick healer. Who knows I'm here?"

"No one….I don't even know who you are. How the hell would I know who to call?"

"….Randy McLean, and…." Ryo started to get up. "If you haven't called anyone, then….I have to use your phone _now_." His feet hit the ground, and he stumbled—right into Verne's hold, and the ex-Marine shoved him back into the bed.

"You're not going anywhere, sonny. Not until I've gotten some food in you. Now, I'll bring you the phone, but you're not moving. Stay." And then he disappeared out the door, returning several minutes later with a steaming bowl of soup, a spoon, and a cordless phone.

Verne made Ryo eat the entire bowl of soup before giving him the phone, and Ryo could barely concentrate on the numbers he was dialing. His mind could focus on only one thing—reassuring Dee. If he had been gone for four days, his lover must be out of his mind with anxiety.

He got no answer the first time. Undaunted, he dialed again, and a third time. On the fourth attempt, however, he realized that he was not going to get an answer, and he started to get out of bed. His legs supported him this time, and Verne did not protest.

"How far from the city are we?"

"About an hour," Verne replied.

"I need you to take me back, then. _Now_."

Verne shrugged and stood. "Okay."

Ryo paused, shirt in hand (he had found it, along with his jacket, on the chair by the door). "That's….it?"

"I was in the Marines, sonny, you forget. I'm used to things happening fast."

"But….you're a doctor," Ryo replied, gingerly pulling the shirt over his head, wincing as the movement pulled at his stitches. "Shouldn't you be telling me to stay in bed or some crap like that?"

"Probably. But you seem pretty set on getting home. I get the feeling you'd just strong-arm me into a wall if I tried to stop you."

Ryo chuckled as he slowly pulled on his jacket. "Probably. Well….come on."

XXX

"Dee, dear….you really ought to think about returning to work," Sister Maria said quietly.

Dee had finally emerged from his room and was now sitting on the couch, avoiding making eye contact with the people surrounding him. His face was an emotionless mask. He had not spoken, or moved, or let a single tear escape since the previous night.

"She's right, Dee. You can't just sit here and rot forever….you need to get back in the game…." JJ chimed in.

The phone rang at that moment, and Drake moved to answer it.

"Leave it," Bikky said suddenly, his voice thick with something that no one in the room could quite pin down.

"But….it's rung four times, it could be import—"

"_Leave it_, Drake. It doesn't matter."

XXX

Ryo slammed Verne's cell phone shut. "Damn it….where the hell _are_ they?"

"Calm down, son....I'm sure everything's fine."

"Yeah…." Ryo muttered, dialing Dee's cell phone number now. This, too, went unanswered. "He must have his phone off…."

"Who are you trying to call?"

"My, uh…." Ryo faltered and paused. "My….partner."

"Don't you have someone else you can call?"

Ryo hit the number two on his speed dial yet again. "No. It's just him and me. And my adoptive son….who lives with him…." Too preoccupied to realize the implications of that statement, he just held the phone up to his ear and listened to the endless ring. "I could call the precinct, but then I'd have to sit and answer an endless string of questions and I'd never get home to Dee…."

"I see," Verne replied neutrally, maneuvering his old, beat-up forward along the nearly deserted road.

"God, where would they be?"

"Working? Looking for you?"

"Probably….but Dee would have his cell phone on….he'd be hoping I would call…unless…." Something clicked in Ryo's mind. "Oh, God….you have to go faster. I've got to get home _now_."

"….What?"

"God, I'm such an idiot! They probably think I'm _dead_ by now…."

"What're you going on about?"

"Never mind, can we just….drive faster?"

Verne stepped on the gas without questioning, and the truck revved up into another gear.

"….I'm sorry, you're practically killing yourself to get me home and here I am being a total jerk to you…."

"Don't worry about it, kid. It's fine."

Ryo smiled slightly as he dialed Dee's number again, having given up on getting hold of anyone on his home phone. "So….tell me something about you."

"Eh?"

"Well, we're just sitting here….might as well pass the time with some good conversation."

"Not much to tell."

"Do you….have a wife? Kids?"

"Wife died. Kids are scattered…. Nope. S'just me and Buttercup."

"Buttercup?"

"My dog. She's older 'n Moses and crazier than Pee Wee Herman, but she's my girlie."

"Why didn't I see her while I was there?"

"You would have if you'd bothered to look around before you bolted out the door," Verne replied with a chuckle as they finally entered the city.

Ryo dialed the number one last time, then suddenly slammed the phone shut as Verne stopped in front of his building.

"Hey, kid," Verne said suddenly as Ryo stepped out of the car, trying to avoid moving his upper body as much as he possibly could. "I did the best I could, but you might want to go to a doctor sometime in the next week or so and get checked out. Just to be sure."

"Yes, sir," Ryo replied, getting ready to close the door. He stopped suddenly, however. "Mr. Verne?"

"Desmond."

"….Right. Desmond."

"Eh?"

"One day soon, after I've seen to Dee and everything….can I come back out to your house?"

"What the hell for?"

Ryo chuckled. "You saved my life. A visit now and then seems like a very small price to pay."

"Well, all right, but this time you are _not_ staying in _my_ bedroom."

Ryo chuckled. "Fair enough," he replied, and closed the truck door.

XXX

"Dear….you have to think about all the good you've done…." Sister Maria said quietly. "You have to think about all the lives you've saved."

"I didn't save Ryo's life."

The room fell completely and totally silent. There it was. There was the reason that Dee had been so thoroughly broken. The reason he had not spoken in four days. The reason he had not shed any more tears.

He felt he didn't have the right to.

Bikky had cried. He had finally allowed himself to break down the night before, curled up against his once second, now only, father's chest. He had cried through the night and long after everyone else had fallen asleep. He had cried for Ryo….for Dee….for his biological father….for the people who had lost Ryo….for the people that Dee no longer wanted to save. He cried for everything that had been lost along with the 27th precinct's most trusted and well-liked officer. Then he had slept, woken up with the sun, and the tears had returned.

But Dee had not cried again.

Dee stood slowly, going over to the window and pushing back the curtain to look out over the now dark city. "I didn't save Ryo. He died alone. Because I was too stupid to go out and look for him. Because I didn't care enough." He turned to face them, his face filled with barely-controlled rage. "And now he's gone, and _you want me to play the hero_?" His voice was rising in volume. "Don't you _get_ it? It's all completely pointless without him! It's all for _nothing_! Everything we do is _nothing_! It. Is. All. _Nothing_." His voice was calming down now, and when he spoke again, it was cracked and broken. "_I'm_ nothing…."

That was when the quiet, shocked voice issued from the doorway, and every eye in the room whipped around toward it.

"Dee….?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

So I guess I owe all those tragedy lovers out there an apology…. Except I'm not sorry. Because I love Ryo too much to kill him….at least, not this time around….

Oh, and it's possible that Desmond will show up in a later story—actually, there's a 99% chance of it, since that's the reason I put him in the story in the first place.

One more chapter and we're done, guys. Bear with me!


	11. To Change the Story

Four chapters in one weekend? Is it possible? Let's find out….

**Chapter 11—To Change the Story**

An hour later, a freshly showered and changed Ryo sat on the couch in his and Dee's apartment, a likewise freshly showered and changed Dee at his side. Dee was curled as close to Ryo's side as physically possible, refusing to break contact with his lover for even a moment. He had not spoken a single word since Ryo's return, but simply clung to the blond like a drowning man clings to a lifeline and refused to let go.

"….Damn," JJ said as Ryo finished explaining about what had happened to him and how he had managed to get back to the city. "That's….quite a story."

"Believe me, I know better than anyone how lucky I was," Ryo replied, taking a sip of his tea and carding his fingers through Dee's hair. "I was sure I was dead…." He looked over at Bikky, while his hand stroked Dee's head thoughtfully. "I kept hoping that maybe….just maybe….I'd get lucky….and I'd be able to come back." He shrugged. "Guess God….or fate….or whatever the hell it is that runs our lives decided that I wasn't done with you guys yet…." He trailed off, his eyes darkening for a moment before he said, "I'm so sorry for worrying you….for making you think….I was…."

"Don't freaking say it," Bikky ordered, his hand tightening around Carol's shoulders. "Say it, and I swear to God I'll do it to you myself."

Ryo chuckled. "Fair enough, Biks." He turned to JJ, who was lying on the room's other, larger couch with his head in Drake's lap. He had just taken another dose of painkillers, and was floating pleasantly in total numbness. "So….how are you feeling? What are you doing out of the hospital so soon?"

"Well.…when we thought you were….you know…." JJ swallowed. "I convinced them to let me stay out of the hospital, so that I could stay with Dee."

"And now he's checking back _into_ the hospital _tonight_," Drake stated, in a voice that booked no argument. "Because he was a _moron_ and he probably made himself _worse_ with all the worrying."

"Yeah, yeah, can it, bonehead…." JJ muttered good-naturedly, his voice slurred.

"….JJ, are you falling asleep?"

"Mm-hmm…." JJ affirmed.

"Well….you can't do that. We're leaving."

"….Now?"

"Yes."

"Do we have to?"

Drake sighed in exasperation. "Yes."

JJ groaned. "Fine…."

Drake leaned over to shake Ryo's hand, and JJ gave him a light hug after settling into his wheelchair. Then the two left, JJ falling asleep almost before he and Drake were out the door.

Sister Maria stood soon after that. "I'll be going, too," she said, before coming over to pull Ryo into a long hug. She kissed him lightly on the top of the head. "It's good to see you, son," she said softly. "Let's try not to have this happen again, all right? This old woman would rather have _both_ her boys alive, well, and together for many years to come, thank you very much."

Ryo laughed. "Yes, Mother," he replied. "I'll see that it doesn't happen again."

After Sister Maria had left, Ryo said, "Now, if I know my boys, you two probably slept since all this started." He smiled and stood up, pulling Dee with him. The raven haired detective did not protest or fight the action, but followed the blonde's direction wordlessly. "Carol, why don't you stay here tonight? You can stay in Bikky's room….I get the feeling he'd like to have you around."

Carol smiled as she slowly uncurled herself from her position in Bikky's lap and stood up. She came over and planted a kiss on Ryo's cheek, then one on Dee's. "Welcome home, Ryo," she said to the blond, before going back over to Bikky's side.

Ryo smiled. "Thanks, Carol. Goodnight."

After Carol had disappeared into the bathroom to change into one of Bikky's largest tee shirts, Bikky came over and grabbed Ryo in a fierce hug. Ryo blinked and hid his grimace as he returned the hug in a surprised sort of way. "Bikky….?"

"You scared the hell out of me, you jerk," Bikky muttered, his face buried in his father's chest. "And if you pull that shit on me again, I swear to God…."

"I won't," Ryo replied, his arms tightening around his son. "I promise."

Bikky's stepped back, his arms dropping reluctantly from around Ryo. "Night."

"And then there were two," Ryo said as Bikky and Carol closed the door. "Are you ready for bed?"

Dee nodded, his hand still clinging tightly to Ryo's as they went into their bedroom. They curled up on the bed together, Ryo stroking Dee's back soothingly as they began to drift silently into dreams.

When Ryo awoke later, it was to find himself most certainly _not_ in the arms of his lover. Dee was curled up on the opposite side of the bed….and as far from Ryo as he could get.

Frowning, the blond considered moving over to him, but then decided against it; Dee clearly did not want to be touched or held at the moment.

The concerned frown still on his face, Ryo stared up at the ceiling for over an hour before finally falling back to sleep.

"I hate this God damned hellhole…." JJ muttered.

Drake laughed. "I know you do. But….you feel better being here, don't you? Physically, I mean," he rushed to clarify, knowing without a doubt that, if left with an opening, JJ would begin a tirade on the uselessness of hospitals and their insistence on filling their "prisoners" with multitudes of lime Jell-O, and nothing else.

"Yeah, I guess….but it's so _boring_….no colors on the walls…._nothing_. How do they expect people to get better in places like this?"

"I have no idea," Drake replied with a shrug. "But you are _not_ leaving until the doctors decide to let you this time. Do you understand me?"

JJ smiled slightly. "Yes, Daddy…." he muttered, pulling Drake into a long, slow kiss. "Love you," he said softly when they parted.

Drake opened his mouth, then closed it. He still had trouble with the words….they just didn't come as easily to him as they did to his partner. "I know you do," he finally managed.

The smile grew wider. "It's okay, Drake. You don't have to spaz. You said it once….that's enough. It's more than enough." His face suddenly grew serious, though, and a little sad. "I just wish Dee would say it to Ryo again…."

"Yeah…." Drake agreed. "What's going on with those two, do you think?"

"I don't know…." JJ sat there for a moment, subdued, then suddenly pulled on Drake's hand. "Come sit with me."

Drake laughed. "You're insane, you know that?" In spite of the words, however, he sat down on the hospital bed next to JJ, stretching out as close to his lover as he could without hurting him.

JJ reached over to the bedside table and picked up a book from the stack there. "Read to me?"

Smiling, Drake took the book, opened it to the first page, and began to read. He read for hours, pausing only when a nurse or doctor came in to see to JJ, until the silver-haired man fell into a peaceful slumber, lulled to sleep by the voice of the man he loved.

The man who, both of them knew by now, was there to stay.

Sister Maria was sitting in the front pew of the church, staring thoughtfully at the face of the Virgin Mary. The place was silent, as all the children had scattered to play outside, and at this time of day, the church was an excellent place to think.

"….Mother?"

The kindly old nun turned, and smiled happily. "Ryo!"

"Hello, Mother," Ryo said, planting a light kiss on Sister Maria's cheek.

"Hello to you, too, dear. And to what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Actually, I….needed to talk to you. Do you have a minute?"

"For one of my boys? I have two. Come sit." She patted the space next to her, and Ryo took it, wincing as even the smallest movement pulled at his chest and his shoulder, the latter of which was now supported by a sling. "What is it, dear?"

"Actually, it's….it's Dee."

Sister Maria frowned. "What about him?"

"He's been acting….strange."

"Strange how?"

"I don't know, it's hard to put your finger on. It's just….since everything happened….he's been different. One minute, he's clinging to me like there's no tomorrow and acting like I'm about to disappear again any second, and the next….he doesn't want to be anywhere near me. And he never talks or makes eye contact. It's almost like he's…._angry_ at me…."

Much to Ryo's surprise, Sister Maria smiled. "Ah….I see." Sighing, she took Ryo's hand in hers. "Well, Ryo, you have to understand something about Dee. He handles a lot of things….differently….than you and I do. He's lost so much in his life….so very, very much that he's loved and treasured. And then he met you, and his life suddenly looked so much better than it ever had before. You compliment each other, take care of each other….love each other. And he thought he'd lost all of that. So he dealt with the situation the only way he knew how—he closed himself off from it. He's still closing himself off from it, because you haven't talked him through the process of opening up again." She squeezed his hand. "He needs you now more than ever, Ryo. Just coming back isn't enough. You have to prove to him that you're here to stay."

"I guess that….makes sense…." Ryo smiled at Sister Maria. "Thank you, Mother."

"Yes, well….that's what I'm here for." Sister Maria smiled. "Now….go back to Dee."

Ryo's smile grew. "I will. I….always will. I promise."

When he returned home, it was to find Dee sitting on the bed, staring at nothing, as he so often did nowadays. Closing the bedroom door behind him silently, he came over to sit on the bed next to Dee. The raven haired man did not look up or acknowledge his presence.

"….Dee?"

"Yeah?"

"Can….you come with me for a minute?"

"….Huh?"

"I want you to come with me. I have something I need you to see."

The air on the rooftop of the apartment building felt different. It was….clearer, somehow. Quieter. More soothing.

Ryo moved over the railing, leaving Dee standing by the door to the stairs that led up to the roof. He leaned against the rails, closing his eyes and taking in the smells and sounds of the always moving, never ending city life. "God, I love this town…." he said softly, just loud enough for Dee to hear. He paused for a moment, letting the fast pace that was the essence of New York calm his scattered senses, then turned suddenly to look at Dee. "Do you know why?"

Dee shook his head wordlessly, coming over to stand beside Ryo, although not close enough that they were touching. Ryo took note of this, but did not press the issue as he turned to look back out over the cityscape.

"It's because….cities like New York give guys like you and me a reason for being." He stopped to collect his thoughts. "Look at all the good we've done, Dee….everything we've accomplished." He tried to find a way to express his thoughts, and then suddenly, a quote that Carol had read to him from one of her favorite books jumped into his head. "'There's always a story. It's all stories, really. The sun coming up every day is a story. Everything's got a story in it. Change the story, change the world.'" He turned to look at Dee. "We've changed…._so_ many stories, Dee. You and me, together. And all of this….me disappearing and getting shot, Russell confessing to you and getting three truly evil men off the streets by doing so….it was all just a way of changing another story. Of changing the world."

"Yeah, but the end doesn't justify the means, Ryo," Dee said, the words coming with surprising clarity and ease, considering he had hardly spoken two words at a time since Ryo's return. "I almost lost you….I thought I _had_ lost you for awhile."

"Yeah, but Dee….when all is said and done….the end is really all there is. We have nothing else besides the knowledge that by getting up and going to work and risking our lives _every single day_….we're changing the world."

Dee sighed, and stared out at the city. It made sense….but it didn't make the thought of losing Ryo any easier to bear. Still, hearing the words from Ryo soothed him in a way that nothing else had. And suddenly, Dee couldn't see a good reason for his recent behavior. Suddenly, having Ryo in his arms seemed like the most important thing in the world.

Ryo yelped as he felt himself being pulled against his lover in a bone-crushing grip. Then he smiled, slowly, and ran his good across Dee's back in soothing circular motions, ignoring the painful fire that the raven haired detective's tight hold lit under his damaged skin. "I love you."

"I love you, too," Dee said softly, his voice choked. "Don't leave me again….please."

In answer, Ryo simply held Dee closer. A warm drop fell onto his neck, and it was followed by another. The second was followed by a flood, and Dee felt like they would never stop.

And throughout the torrents of tears, Ryo held him, comforted him….loved him. As he would continue to do until the day he was dragged, kicking and screaming, off the face of the Earth.

Nothing short of death—possibly not even death itself—could have broken them apart now.

There. Finished. Four chapters in two days, and they're not totally crappy….not in my opinion, at least.

….I've probably doomed myself to eternal writer's block now….

Oh, and anyone care to guess what book the line that Ryo used came from? I'll give you a hint: I DID NOT MAKE IT UP. It's from a book by Terry Pratchett.


End file.
